About Elyria

Elyria (/lri/ -LEER-ee-) is a city in and the county seat of Lorain County, Ohio, United States, located at the forks of the Black River in Northeast Ohio 23 miles (37km) southwest of Cleveland. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 52,656. It is a principle city in the Cleveland metropolitan area. The city is home to Lorain County Community College.

The city's name is derived from the surname of its founder, Heman Ely, and Illyria, the historical name used by ancient Greeks and Romans to refer to the western Balkans.(Elyria)

The village of Elyria was founded in 1817 by Heman Ely, who built a log house, dam, gristmill, and sawmill on the village's site along the Black River. Ely began to build more houses to accommodate European-American settlers migrating to what was, at that time, within Huron County, Ohio. By the time Ely died in 1852, Elyria had five churches, three grocery stores, three flour mills, a newspaper, and a population of more than 1,500. Early postal service from Cleveland was provided by Artemis Beebe, a rider who held the first contract to deliver mail across this section of the Black River.[citation needed]
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