The greater Medina area is closely tied to the history of the Erie Canal, from Gouverneur Morris's 1800 vision of a canal from Albany to Lake Erie to construction begun in 1817 and completed in 1825 as a 363-mile waterway 40 feet wide and 4 feet deep with 83 locks and 18 aqueducts, built by 2-3000 men and 700 horses. When surveyors reached Oak Orchard Creek in 1822-23, an aqueduct at Medina Falls became necessary. The canal was widened from 1835 to 1862 to 70 feet wide and 7 feet deep, enlarged again in 1895 to 9 feet deep, and underwent a third enlargement from 1903 to 1918 to 120-200 feet wide and 12-23 feet deep. By 1880, moving goods by canal had reached its peak, reducing costs from $100.00 per ton overland to $10.00 per ton by canal, a 90% drop in freight rates. Medina itself developed from Samuel Grear's mill at the waterfalls in 1806-1807, a first log cabin in 1811, village layout by Ebenezer Mix in 1823-1824, and incorporation in 1832. Through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the community saw the opening of John Ryan's first sandstone quarry in 1837, Frederick Douglass speaking in Medina in 1849, Bent's Opera House opening in 1865, electricity and telephone lines arriving in 1889, the HJ Heinz Company coming in 1898, the Pearl Street Armory completed in 1902, Babe Ruth playing baseball there in 1920, school centralization in 1953, Fisher Price Manufacturing arriving in 1970, the YMCA established at the Armory in 1980, Main Street Medina receiving National Register of Historic Places designation in 1995, and a canal revitalization grant in 2023. Medina Sandstone, formed over 400 million years ago and first quarried in Medina in 1837, became known for beauty, quality, durability, and four fade-resistant colors, and was used from paving bricks to major building projects in cities including Buffalo, Chicago, New York, and Cleveland, as well as in Havana and at Buckingham Palace in London. In the present, the canal and surrounding area are used largely for recreation, with trails, boating, fishing, parks, Glenwood Lake, the Medina Canal Basin Park and Marina, the Y Canal Club, the Medina Memorial Bluebird Trail, and the nearby Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge supporting outdoor activity.
