{"nrhp_refnum":"74001607","name":"Mantua Center District (Additional Documentation)","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Roughly bounded by OH 82 and Mantua Center Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Mantua Center","county":"Portage County","state":"OH","lat":41.30980785300005,"lon":-81.24472135499997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1974-10-09","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A rural crossroads township center of about 3.6 acres in Mantua Center, Portage County, Ohio, at State Route 82 and Mantua Center Road. It includes a public common, two churches, a town hall and two houses, most built around 1835-1840.","why_significant":"The nomination calls it a remarkably intact early nineteenth century crossroads township center that holds community, religious and residential buildings, even though the buildings are individually modest. The Christian Church is the oldest Campbellite congregation in Ohio, and the town hall retains a rare octagonal Greek Revival cupola.","narrative":"Mantua Center is a small crossroads township center in Portage County, Ohio, organized around a public common where State Route 82 meets Mantua Center Road. The district covers about 3.6 acres and contains two churches, a town hall and two houses, nearly all built around 1835-1840. The Christian Church, built 1839-1840, serves the oldest Campbellite congregation in Ohio, formed in 1827 after Sidney Rigdon began preaching in Mantua. James A. Garfield was among the visiting pastors. The Methodist Episcopal congregation, formed in 1806, built its present frame church after an earlier building burned. That building later served as a township school annex and became a civic center in 1968. The town hall is notable for an octagonal cupola with a domed top, a Greek Revival feature rarely preserved on public buildings. One house on the northwest corner began as a store built in 1835. The nomination values the district as a distinct and intact whole even though its individual buildings are modest.","period_of_significance":"1835-1895","architect_builder":"Amos Morris and Lewis Reed (builders of the Methodist Episcopal meeting houses)","architectural_style":"Greek Revival with Gothic Revival features","criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition rated good and altered; the buildings are occupied. The former Methodist church is used as a civic center and is in the poorest condition of the five buildings.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:53:10.215935-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/74001607.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71991019","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":null},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/portage-county/mantua-center-district-additional-documentation-74001607/"}