This house, built in 1853, was the boyhood home of vacuum cleaner entrepreneur William Henry “Boss” Hoover (1849-1932), whose grandparents came to Stark County from Pennsylvania in 1827 and established a leather tanning business. “Boss” Hoover began manufacturing a patented electric suction sweeper in 1908 in a corner of his leather goods factory in New Berlin (now North Canton), introducing to American households one of the most essential domestic appliances and making Hoover a universally known name. In 1978, The Hoover Company dedicated the Hoover Historical Center to showcase the industry created here.