The Little Wiz Fire and Historic Medina Museum
   
    The Little Wiz Fire Museum, started life as a small grocery store in 1928.
 
    The Little Whiz Grocery ( Phone 1420 ) at what is now 326 East Smith Road, 
in Medina, Ohio,  only lasted for a few years, due to the Great Depression and 
the willingness of the owner to extend credit to his patrons. Unfortunately, 
the hard times and inability to collect on those credits, eventually cost him 
the business.
 
    After the initial demise, the store was taken over by Marcel Hoff and his 
wife Ruth. They ran the store successfully as Hoff’s Grocery, well into the 
middle 1960’s, when they retired. 
  
     Along about 1967, the store was sold to Graff’s Glass, who moved their 
existing glass business from 2 blocks to the west, into the new location and 
added a service bay at the rear of the building. They stayed in business till 
early in the 21st century, and upon retirement, leased the building to a small 
number of businesses that never seemed to last very long.
 
    About a month before Mr. Graff’s death, the building was purchased by 
Thomas Doyle to house his Burglar and Fire alarm business, FBN Systems. 
After a slow process of fixing and remodeling, it was decided to use the first floor 
of the building, to display Tom’s ever expanding private collection of antique 
fire equipment.
 
    With the historic research that was done about the building, it was decided 
to capitalize on the humorous first business’s name and it’s somewhat comical 
association with fire equipment.
 
    
    The Museum is open on most Saturdays through the year, or other times by 
appointment for tours or students and small groups. You are advised to 
call 330-419-0200 to confirm the open hours, especially if coming from out of town.
 
  The Museum is NOT physically large, but contains a large (and somewhat 
tightly packed) collection of early fire equipment. Visitors are given a personal tour, 
with informative descriptions of the equipment displayed, so they will walk away 
with as much education and history as possible. Questions and answers are 
encouraged, and add to the interactive learning atmosphere. Please come back 
often to view the ever evolving collection.
 

                              Sincerely,     Thomas Doyle   and   Darren Alber