The first thing you have to know about Willoughby is that in its quaint, quintessentially American downtown, they play music from loudspeakers on the street. Sometimes it’s country music. Other times it’s coffee shop smooth tunes. It gives you the uncanny feeling that someone is trying to set the mood for your day, and that mood is chill.
I don’t know if it’s the music or just the kind of people Willoughby attracts, but everyone here is pretty chill. The first place on my discover-Willoughby-itinerary is a locally owned coffee shop called Fiona’s. It’s here that I meet Michele and Larry Perme. They moved to Willoughby seven years ago, trading in a much bigger house with a large yard for a small fixer-upper because they found Willoughby “charming.”
“This is slower paced and lovely and we walk downtown weekly, several times a week. So it’s just great. It’s beautiful,” Michele says. “I love it here.”
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Other suburbs we spent a day visiting:
Medina Keeps A Small Town Feel Despite City Amenities
Larchmere is Ready to Stand Out
Avon Balances Past With Present
Hudson is a Walkable, Family-Friendly Haven
Rocky River, 2024 top suburb for Cleveland Magazine
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The retirees spend their days leisurely drinking coffee in front of their home, chatting with neighbors, hanging out at the local coffee shop, perusing the downtown stores and patronizing the local restaurants. All very chill activities.
“This is the kind of neighborhood where you know your mailman and you have a bond with them,” Michele tells me. “Our days are very relaxed.”
Later in the day, I ran into Michele again while she was shopping for canine accessories with her dog Bella at Barktown, the local dog groomer. Running into people you’ve known only for an hour is pretty common in this small town, the fact that they greet you like long-lost friends is less common.
Michele says there’s one important thing she forgot to tell me about Willoughby: It’s haunted by the girl in blue, a young woman who was hit by a train on Christmas Eve of 1933. No one knew who she was, so residents buried her under a gravestone that identified her by her entirely blue outfit.
RATED: 2024 Cleveland's Top 20 Suburbs by Cleveland Magazine
Ghost hunting was not on my itinerary for the day, but off I go to a restaurant and bar called Spirits (get it?) that has capitalized on the city’s haunted history. Cindy Byram owns the bar along with her husband, Jay. They’ve lived here for 47 years. She’s watched the downtown area transform from what was once a sleepy couple of blocks into what is today a main street full of bustling businesses.
“I love it here,” she says. “I love the convenience of the area, I love my neighborhood. The people here are friendly … we’ve met lifelong friends by living here.”
While younger residents told me how much they appreciate being able to go out to bars like the Wild Goose or to Mickey’s for ice cream and hot dogs and walk home, Spirits caters to an older, calmer crowd.
It’s here I discover that the girl in blue, holding a glass of wine as she billows out of a steam engine on a poster on the wall, is not the only ghost around town. Next door, in the Willoughby Coal and Supply building, I find Jay sitting in what appears to be an antique barber chair. The store, which mostly deals in building supplies, is haunted by a previous owner who was either pushed or jumped out of a circular window on the top floor. The store is filled with antique knickknacks, from an old sled to some very ’80s lawn figurines to railroad crossing lights. Jay found some of the stuff, some was dropped off by locals, and all of it lends credence to the creepy vibes the place is not exactly trying to avoid. It is a stop on the Willoughby Ghost Tours and a known attraction for ghost hunters.
Jay tells me they’re “all friendly ghosts.” Even the ghosts here are chill.
I head back downtown to Yogi’s Closet. Owner
Angie Vodopivec says Willoughby is a great place to open a small business. “The community is amazing. I have shoppers that come in almost every week,” she says. “They’re local. They love to just take a walk down here and get a coffee and go in all the shops.”
People here are so nice, she says, that during the pandemic when she was forced to shut her doors, a stranger paid her rent. As she tears up thinking about it, her dog, Penny, starts barking at something just outside the window, possibly another dog or a baby, or perhaps one of the city’s very chill ghosts coming by to give her pets.
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