Remarkable Ohio

Results for: rural-historic-district
NW corner of Napoleon Street and N Broad Street
Kalida

, OH

Described as a Columbus “institution” when he died in 1969, Emerson C. Burkhart was born on a farm in Union Township, Putnam County in 1905. The son of Albert and Nora Burkhart, Emerson graduated from Kalida High School in 1924 and from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1927. After studying art in Provincetown, Massachusetts and in New York City, he settled in Columbus and, in 1937, married Mary Ann Martin, an artists’ model who devoted herself to his career. Burkhart was a prolific painter and completed an estimated 3,000 pictures during his 40-year career, including street scenes, rural landscapes, and more than 250 self-portraits, once noting his face was “cheaper than a model’s and always there.”

Early Settlers Burying Ground Cemetery, N. Main Street
Bethel

, OH

Resting here among other pioneers are: Obed Denham, native of Plainfield, New Jersey, donor of this plot, founder of Bethel in 1798, and pioneer abolitionist; Thomas Morris, antislavery leader, veteran state legislator, U.S. senator 1833-1839, and Liberty Party vice presidential nominee 1844; Reader Wright Clarke, U.S. representative from the Clermont District 1865-1869, and U.S. Treasury second auditor 1869-1870; “The Unknown Hunter”; befriended by Obed Denham and the first person buried in this hallowed ground.

117 S. Fountain Avenue
Springfield

, OH

The Old City Building and Market, also known as the Municipal Building or Marketplace, was designed by local architect Charles A. Cregar. It was completed in 1890 at a cost of $250,000. Vendors, who sold meats, fish, provisions, vegetables, and other products, used the first floor of the building as a city market. The second and third floors accommodated city offices, the police department, the City Council Chamber, and City Hall, which doubled as an opera house. The Old City Building and Market, built in the Richardson Romanesque architectural style, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. In March 2001, it became the home of the Clark County Historical Society and renamed the Heritage Center of Clark County.

Mill Street/OH 151
Hopedale

, OH

Platted by educator and abolitionist Cyrus McNeely in 1849, Hopedale was the site of McNeely Normal School, later Hopedale Normal College, the first coeducational college for teachers in eastern Ohio. It operated from 1849 to 1902. Among its graduates was George Armstrong Custer in 1856. Hopedale served as an important stop on the Underground Railroad for slaves fleeing bondage in the southern states. Local tradition notes several “stations” in the village, three at private homes and one at a hotel.

Northwest State Community College, 22600 OH 34
Archbold

, OH

The landscape of northwest Ohio was formed by melting ice and the glacial lakes left behind in its wake. Because of the low gradient (3 feet fall per mile) to the northeast, the flat lacustrine plain evolved into a large swamp. A massive swamp forest with huge hardwoods, broken only sporadically with intermittent wet prairies and savannahs, dominated the landscape. Both prehistoric and historic Indians farmed the flood plains of the Maumee River and its tributaries: Auglaize, Tiffin, and Blanchard rivers. (continued on other side)

OH 141
Waterloo

, OH

Waterloo was home to the legendary Waterloo Wonders. Coach Magellan Hariston and his Wonder Five captured consecutive Ohio state high school Class B basketball championships in 1934 & 1935, winning 94 out of 97 games, and defeating many Class A and college teams. The 91st Ohio House of Representatives honored the Waterloo Wonders with a resolution following their second Class B State Championship win. The Wonders, known for their colorful passing show, entertained fans with their scoring ability, defense, trick passes, and hardwood antics. Hailing from a small village with a school male enrollment of only 26, the Waterloo Wonders were considered one of the greatest basketball teams ever assembled on the Ohio high school athletic scene. After high school, four of the Wonder Five played professionally as the Waterloo Wonders, ranking among the best basketball squads in the country.

2291 St. Johns Road
Maria Stein

, OH

The Sisters of the Precious Blood, founded in Switzerland by Maria Anna Brunner in 1834, began their ministry of prayer and education in Mercer County here at Maria Stein (Our Lady of the Rock). Father Francis de Sales Brunner, a Missionary of the Precious Blood, brought the Sisters to America in 1844, and in 1846 established the foundation at Maria Stein, named after a Benedictine Abbey in Switzerland. The convent was the Motherhouse of the Sisters of the Precious Blood until 1923. Relics of the saints were brought to this site from Italy in 1875. The present convent and relic chapel (National Marian Shrine of the Holy Relics), built during 1890-1902, were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.

50037 German Ridge Road
Beallsville

, OH

These structures stand as an exception to the usual wood frame or brick construction of farm buildings in this region in the late nineteenth century. The house and barn, built circa 1871 and 1883-1885 respectively, reflect Frederick Kindelberger’s (1835-1911) creativity and vision to instill a responsibility to the land. The Kindelberger family purchased the farm in 1846, after they had emigrated from Alsace-Lorraine. The walls of the barn were created using a distinct architectural design, whereas they taper from 25 inches thick at the base to 12 inches thick at the top. Stonemasons and family members labored using sandstone, which was quarried on the eighty-acre farm, to construct the buildings. Due to their stone construction, the house and barn were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.