{"nrhp_refnum":"79002810","name":"Leesville Town Hall","other_names":["Lee's Tavern"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"OH 598 and CR 229","address_restricted":false,"city":"Leesville","county":"Crawford County","state":"OH","lat":40.79543775800005,"lon":-82.78831425999994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1979-04-03","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Exploration/Settlement"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Leesville Town Hall, formerly Lee's Tavern, is a two-and-a-half-story rectangular wood frame building at the northeast corner of State Route 598 and County Road 229 in Leesville, Jefferson Township, Crawford County, Ohio, built about 1830.","why_significant":"The building was built and owned by Rev. Robert Lee, and his son Robert ran the first tavern in it. It stood at the crossroads of the first state highway from Columbus to Cleveland and the main road from Mansfield to Bucyrus, so it likely played a large part in early county history. Tavern use continued until 1901, when the Town Trustees took it over as the town hall.","narrative":"Leesville Town Hall began about 1830 as a tavern built and owned by Rev. Robert Lee in the village of Leesville, Jefferson Township, Crawford County, Ohio. It is a plain, rectangular wood frame building of two and a half stories, with beveled siding, a shingle roof and a rusticated stone foundation. It has two bays across the front and two on the side, and the interior has no partitions. The roof has been re-shingled and the interior altered somewhat, but the building is basically unchanged since construction. Lee's son Robert ran the first tavern here. Ownership changed hands fifteen times during the 1800s, and the tavern business continued until 1901, when the Town Trustees took over the building and it became the town hall. It sits at the crossroads of the first state highway from Columbus to Cleveland and the main road from Mansfield to Bucyrus, a location that likely made it important in early county history. It still serves for township meetings and voting.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Architect and builder unknown; originally built and owned by Rev. Robert Lee","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Used for township meetings and voting; interior and exterior condition listed as very good.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:53:12.129587-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/79002810.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79002810/c60497c7d0-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79002810/c60497c7d0-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Christopher L. Riley","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Leesville_Town_Hall_%E2%80%94_Leesville,_Ohio.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Christopher L. Riley</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Leesville_Town_Hall_%E2%80%94_Leesville,_Ohio.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71984578","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q137636041"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/crawford-county/leesville-town-hall-79002810/"}