John Tarzan of Canton has always had a deep appreciation for history – a passion that made the Hartville Train Station a natural fit.
The lifelong artist and history buff purchased the Hartville Train Station in Hartville in 2002 and decided to open a train museum and a gift shop selling art pieces made by artists from around Stark County and across the United States. The gift shop is called The Maple Street Art Gallery.
“I thought having both a museum and a gift shop would make it more of a destination location to visit and would entice more people to stop in,” Tarzan said.
The station was empty when he purchased it. The only thing left from the past was the ticket counter at the front of the station. Over the decades, Tarzan has purchased many old trunks, photos, lanterns and other items to fill the inside and return it to what it may have looked like when it was used by passengers. He also added two train cars, a passenger car from 1929 and a caboose from 1924, to the outside of the museum in 2012…