The Lakeside Heritage Society -- founded in 1968 as the Lakeside Heritage Club -- was created by a dedicated group of history buffs who wanted to create a museum of history for Lakeside, Ohio which has a deep history of over 150 years.

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The group obtained use of the Lakeside Methodist chapel, raised funds, refurbished the building, renamed it Heritage Hall, and opened to the public shortly thereafter.

 

Approximately a decade later, the Heritage Society purchased Caldwell House, the first cottage west of Heritage Hall, and created a place to store donations of objects, photographs, documents and other realia aimed at collecting Lakeside Chautauqua history.

In 2021, the Society purchased the Shade Tree Store building in downtown Lakeside. It was completely remodeled as a new, larger archives building, complete with appropriate temperature and humidity controls for long-term artifact storage.