{"nrhp_refnum":"76001521","name":"Bellville Village Hall","other_names":["Centennial Hall"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Park Pl. and Church St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Bellville","county":"Richland County","state":"OH","lat":40.619766097000024,"lon":-82.51194467099998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1976-03-17","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Social History","Performing Arts"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story brick village hall at the southwest corner of Park Place and Church Street in Bellville, Richland County, Ohio, dedicated in 1876 and built by Lewis L. Garber, John L. Garber and others from the village.","why_significant":"The nomination argues that one building served for a long time as the main meeting place of the community, housing village offices, the jail and a second-floor lyceum used for lectures, theatricals and other gatherings. The building reflects cooperation among village leaders, township officials, the constabulary and local groups. It remains central to village activity.","narrative":"Bellville Village Hall sits on the town square at Park Place and Church Street in Richland County, Ohio. Dedicated in 1876 as Centennial Hall, it is a two-story brick building with a low hipped roof, bracketed eaves, and windows topped with metal pediments over segmental arches. The brick was made by hand locally, and the foundation is buff local sandstone. The ground floor held the village offices, including the policeman's office, and a jail that survives intact. Upstairs, the Lyceum, also called the Opera House, has a raised stage, hardwood floors and board and bead paneling. It hosted lectures, amateur theatricals and meetings of literary societies, from talks on Mormonism to early films, though it has been used only for storage since the 1920s. An earlier village hall burned before the Civil War. Local men, including Lewis and John Garber, built the replacement. The building is valued as a single structure that served as the community's main gathering place for generations.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899","architect_builder":"Lewis L. Garber (b. 1832), John L. Garber (b. 1826), and others from the village","architectural_style":"Italianate","criteria":[],"status_note":"Exterior in good condition; first floor offices remodeled, jail intact, second floor Lyceum used only for storage since the 1920s. Owned by the Village of Bellville and used for government.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:53:10.267332-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/76001521.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76001521/423438c3f7-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76001521/423438c3f7-1600.webp","licence":"CC0","author":"User:OHWiki","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bellville_Ohio_Village_Hall.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">User:OHWiki</a>, <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bellville_Ohio_Village_Hall.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71991153","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q138657538"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/richland-county/bellville-village-hall-76001521/"}