Mantua Center Historic District

Mantua, OH is comprised of Mantua Township and Mantua Village, developed on land known as the Connecticut Western Reserve. The Connecticut Western Reserve was surveyed by the Connecticut Land Company, a group of 52 men led by Moses Cleaveland in June of 1796. Among those 52 was one of Mantua's first citizens, Judge Anzi Atwater. Mantua was settled in the fall of 1798, the first within the boundary of what is now Portage County, organized on March 1, 1806 as the third county in the Western Reserve. Abraham S. Honey, the area's first settler, erected a log cabin and planted a small crop of wheat on land speculated to be owned by his brother-in-law, Rufus Edwards. Mantua was incorporated in 1898, named by John Leavitt in honor of Napoleon, who besieged the Italian city of Mantua a century prior in 1797.

Present-day Mantua Township was surveyed by David Abbott in 1810 and contained 17,659 acres, including present-day Shalersville, which became a separate entity in 1812. Present-day Mantua Village was developed in the mid-1850s as Mantua Station; a stop on the Cleveland and Mahoning Valley Railroad. The Cleveland and Mahoning Valley Railroad Company was chartered by a special act of Ohio legislature on February 22, 1848, "with authority to construct and operate a railroad from some point in Cleveland to some point in or near Warren, Ohio." Construction began in 1853 with the grading through Mantua conducted in 1854. The Portage County Democrat stated that the rails were laid between Warren and Mantua Station by 1855, and the connection to Cleveland completed in 1856.

The Mantua Center Historic District, located in Mantua Township, is an enduring example of an early nineteenth century crossroads township center that retains many essential edifices of period life; community, religious, and residential. The District is comprised of a public common (green), one church, a church-turned-civic center, a town hall, and two houses. The land that makes up the Mantua Center Green was donated by Hezekiah Nooney Sr., and became of high importance to the small town's economy. There were numerous businesses located on the green that were constructed as early as 1799, including a furniture and cabinet maker's shop, harness shop, post office, ashery, Blacksmith, tannery, dry goods store, and distillery.

The two houses on the north side of the District are contemporary with the three community buildings. The house on the northwest corner was built as a store in 1835 by Calvin White, and later remodeled as a private residence. The house on the northeast corner was owned at one time by Samuel Baker, who arrived in Mantua in the 1860s. The Mantua Township Town Hall was constructed between 1836 and 1840 and was later adapted for school use; replacing the 1861 one-room schoolhouse on Mantua Center Road. After use as a school, it served as a Grange Hall before becoming the Township Town Hall and site of the Mantua Historical Society's second floor museum. A boy's outhouse, built in 1907, was preserved and stands behind the Town Hall. On the southeast corner of the green sits the most historically significant building of the District: The Mantua Center Christian Church. Constructed in 1840, it is the oldest Disciples of Christ Church. The oldest Campbellite congregation in Ohio, formed on January 27, 1827, occupied this building for worship after it was completed, previously holding services in homes and the local schoolhouse. James A. Garfield, President of Hiram Eclectic Institute (now Hiram College), who would become the twentieth President of the United States, frequented the church as a traveling preacher from 1855-60. Several members of the congregation were influential in the founding of the Eclectic Institute. On the southwest corner of Mantua Center Green sits the Mantua Civic Center, formerly the Methodist Episcopalian Church. The Methodist Episcopal congregation was formed in 1806 and held services in the homes of members until 1809, when they constructed their first log meeting house. In about 1837, a frame building was erected but burned down before it reached completion. A third building was quickly constructed in its place by Amos Morris and Lewis Reed. In 1895, the congregation was transferred to a new brick church located in Mantua Village, leaving the building that would eventually serve as a township school annex, and finally a civic center starting in 1968. The Eastlawn Cemetery sits along the southern border of the District, serving as the final resting place of soldiers from multiple wars, as far back as the American Revolution. In 1835, Horace Sizer constructed the stone wall encompassing the cemetery.

The Mantua Center District was listed to the National Register of Historic Places on October 9, 1974, and the Mantua Center School was listed on September 4, 2013. Mantua Historical Society, Mantua Center Christian Church, and Ohio History Connection (formerly the Ohio Historical Society) sponsored and dedicated the Ohio Historical Marker on the Mantua Center Green in 2008.

1. Johannesen, Eric. "Mantua Center District." National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination Form. Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, January 1974.
2. Brown, Robert C. and J.E. Norris. History of Portage County, Ohio. Chicago: Warner, Beers & Company, 1885.
3. Ling, Adelaide. Mantua Homecoming: 1799-1909. Mantua: Mantua Historical Society, 1909.
4. Mantua Historical Society. Hilltop Christian Church Centennial Celebration. 1989.
5. The Ohio Historical Society, Mantua Historical Society, and Mantua Center Christian Church. Mantua Center Historic District. 2008. Ohio Historical Marker.