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For Immediate Release: April 3, 2007
State Board Recommends Seven Ohio Nominations To The National Register Of Historic Places
Columbus, Ohio. – Members of the Ohio Historic Site Preservation Advisory Board have voted to recommend to State Historic Preservation Officer Rachel M. Tooker that nominations for the following properties and historic districts in Ohio be forwarded to the Keeper of the National Register of Historic Places for her consideration:
Canal Winchester (Madison Township) / Franklin County, Joshua Stevenson House, 5101 Bowen Rd.
Recommended for nomination to the National Register for its local architectural significance as a well-preserved early 19th century Federal style farmhouse, the Stevenson House is believed to have been designed and built by John Leist, an early Fairfield County builder known to have been responsible for several homes of similar design. The nominated property includes about 10 acres of land, which is nearly surrounded by Pickerington Ponds Metropark. The open space will help to preserve the rural setting of the Stevenson House as a reminder of this rapidly developing area's rural heritage.
Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Euclid Avenue Historic District Boundary Increase, to add the St. Clair Building, 205 St. Clair Ave.; Standard Building/Engineer’s Building, 1370 Ontario St.; and former Allerton Hotel, 1796 to 1808 E. 13th St.
A proposed boundary increase would add three buildings to the existing Euclid Avenue Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 2002 for its association with the history of commerce, transportation, architecture, community planning, and development in Cleveland from 1870 to 1958. They include the 1925 St. Clair Building, 205 St. Clair Ave., occupied by Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co. from the 1950s to 2000; the 1924 Standard Building / Engineers Building, 1370 Ontario St., a Commercial style office building designed by Knox and Elliot and faced in glazed terra cotta featuring a distinctive starburst motif; and the former Allerton Hotel, 1796 to 1808 E. 13th St., a 1926 Moorish Revival style building designed by Murgatroyd & Odgen of New York City.
Cleveland Heights / Cuyahoga County, Forest Hill Realty Sales Office, 2419 Lee Blvd.
The 1930 Forest Hill Realty Sales Office is significant for its association with the history of the Forest Hill allotment and the developers who shaped it, and as an example of the Norman Revival style by New York architect Andrew J. Thomas. The Forest Hill development, launched by John D. Rockefeller in the 1920s, was cut short by the Great Depression, then revived by Toledo businessman George A. Roose following World War II and the onset of the baby boom. One of the area’s most ambitious real estate ventures, it reflects the era’s advanced community planning standards.
Dayton, Montgomery County, Dayton Canoe Club, 1020 Riverside Dr.
Completed in 1913, the Dayton Canoe Club building reflects the Progressive Era interest in social and health benefits of outdoor recreation and exercise. In the Dayton area, as recreation on and around the rivers became popular, boathouses, clubhouses, and dance halls sprang up along the Great Miami, Stillwater, and Mad rivers. Architecturally, the Dayton Canoe Club building reflects the influence of the early 20th century Arts and Craft Movement with its emphasis on simplicity and natural materials. The two-story building with stone lower story and overhanging veranda above appears to emerge naturally from the banks of the Great Miami River, while from Riverside Drive it appears to be one story, gently extending above the horizon. Still in use today, it is one of two surviving canoe club buildings of the era in Dayton; the former Stillwater Canoe Club, located just north of the Dayton Canoe Club, is now a private residence.
Green, Summit County, Levi J. Hartong House & Farm, 6521 Mt. Pleasant Rd.
The Levi Hartong House & Farm is recommended for nomination to the National Register for its local significance in the areas of agriculture and architecture. A well preserved farmstead of 1839 to 1950, it comprises an Italianate and Eastlake-inspired farmhouse and 1883 Sweitzer barn, outbuildings, ponds, fields, and a family graveyard.
Jamestown, Greene County, Jamestown Opera House, 19 N. Limestone St.
The 1889 Jamestown Opera House is recommended for nomination to the National Register for its local historic and architectural significance as an example of a late 19th century combination town hall, township house, and opera house, representative of a type of public building once common throughout Ohio. Architecturally, it reflects the influence of the round arched Richardsonian Romanesque style of the 1880s, which was at its peak when the Jamestown Opera House was built.
The Plains, Athens County, Hocking Company Town Historic District, Jackson Dr. and Arbor Dr.
The Hocking Company Town Historic District is recommended for nomination to the National Register as a well-preserved company town of 15 buildings. The combination of modest houses and a company store, which also served as the railroad depot, is typical of towns where commercial activity was controlled by the company that built the town and operated the mine. Although there have been several owners over the past 100 years, the Hocking Company Town Historic District has always had single ownership--the properties were never subdivided and sold as individual parcels to multiple property owners, even after the mine closed in 1948.
The board’s recommendations were made on Friday, March 30, 2007, during a meeting held at the State Library of Ohio in Columbus. As a result, nominations for each of the properties and districts will be forwarded to the Keeper of the National Register, who directs the program for the U.S. Department of the Interior.
If the Keeper agrees that the properties and districts meet the criteria for listing, they will be added to the National Register of Historic Places. A decision from the Keeper is expected in about 90 days.
In other actions, the board tabled a proposed nomination for the Wilhelm and Minna Scheele House at 4224 Poe Ave., Cleveland, pending receipt of additional information.
About the National Register
The National Register lists places that should be preserved because of their significance in American history, architecture, archaeology, engineering, and culture. It includes buildings, sites, structures, objects, and historic districts of national, state, and local importance.
To be eligible for listing on the National Register a property or district must:
- be associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history, or
be associated with the lives of people significant in our past, or
- embody the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction, or represent the work of a master, or possess high artistic values, or represent a significant, distinguishable entity whose components may lack individual distinction (e.g. a historic district), or
- have yielded, or be likely to yield, information important in prehistory or history.
National Register listing often raises community awareness of a property. However, listing does not obligate owners to repair or improve their properties and does not prevent them from remodeling, altering, selling, or even demolishing them if they choose to do so.
Owners or long-term tenants who rehabilitate income-producing properties listed on the National Register can qualify for a 20 percent federal income tax credit if the work they do follows the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation, guidelines used nationwide for repairs and alterations to historic buildings.
In Ohio anyone may prepare a National Register nomination. Nominations are made through the Ohio Historic Preservation Office of the Ohio Historical Society. Proposed nominations are reviewed by the Ohio Historic Site Preservation Advisory Board, a governor-appointed panel of citizens and professionals in history, architecture, archaeology, and related fields. The board reviews each nomination to see whether it appears to be eligible for listing on the National Register, then makes a recommendation to the State Historic Preservation Officer. The final decision to add a property to the register is made by the National Park Service, which administers the program nationwide.
The Ohio Historic Preservation Office is Ohio's official historic preservation agency. A part of the Ohio Historical Society, it identifies historic places in Ohio, nominates properties to the National Register of Historic Places, reviews federally-assisted projects for effects on historic, architectural, and archaeological resources in Ohio, consults on the conservation of older buildings and sites, and offers educational programs and publications.
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Media contact (specific to this release): Tom Wolf: 614.298.2000 or 614.297.2346, or email twolf@ohiohistory.org
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