Great music.  Great architecture.

North Central Ohio is quickly becoming a center for acoustic and jazz music, as historic concert settings host the best in statewide and regional entertainment.

In Bellville, a town of 2,000 residents in southern Richland County, the music of choice is acoustic, folk, and Celtic… with a bit of alternative rock thrown in the mix. Many of these concerts are the product of the Highlands of Ohio Folk and Celtic Music Society, which has been bringing performers to three venues in Bellville since 1999. Their website profiles past performers and highlights upcoming concerts, including a December 9 performance by “Pitch the Peat,” a four-member group playing Irish-themed music on guitar, banjo, flute, accordion, fiddle and “bodhran.”

Bellville itself is a perfect backdrop for unique music. In the middle of town stands the 1879 Bellville Bandstand, a local landmark of Victoriana – so pristine, in fact, that other communities have used it as a model for their own bandstands. The venues include the All Souls’ Unitarian Universalist Church, a 1897 Richardson Romanesque, sandstone building featuring imported German stained glass windows and an 1873 Felgemaker Organ, and also the Bellville Opera House, housed on the second floor of the Bellville Village Hall and a regular feature in haunted Ohio literature. Both buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Then, on November 26 at 2:00 p.m., the Second Annual Holiday Concert with “Swing Machine” will take place at the Galion Theatre in Uptowne Galion, just twenty miles northwest of Bellville. The concert is part of the Jazz For a Sunday Afternoon Series, which brings the best in big-band and jazz music to Galion several times a year. The venue for this concert is the 1949 Galion Theatre, an art moderne building which has recently been restored – including the amazing, neon marquee, one of the last of its kind in Ohio.  While in Uptowne Galion, be sure to stroll the streets and visit its numerous speciality stores and restaurants.  For more information on this concert, please contact Preservation Ohio at: info@preservationohio.org.

Photos:  Bellville Bandstand/AaronTD/Creative Commons License -- Galion Theatre, Preservation Ohio File Photo