{"nrhp_refnum":"93000404","name":"Cherry Valley Coke Ovens","other_names":["Cherry Valley Arboretum"],"category":"structure","location":{"address":"Jct. of Cherry Valley and Butcher Rds.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Leetonia","county":"Columbiana County","state":"OH","lat":40.88453591050006,"lon":-80.75564716820583,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1993-05-06","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Communications"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A complex of four parallel rows containing 212 brick beehive coke ovens in a park on the northeast edge of Leetonia, Columbiana County, Ohio, used from 1866 to about 1930 to make coke for the local iron industry.","why_significant":"The ovens are argued to be significant under Criterion A as the only surviving structures tied to the iron industries that founded Leetonia and dominated its economy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They are described as the largest known beehive coke oven complex in Ohio.","narrative":"Four parallel rows of 212 beehive coke ovens sit in a park on the northeast edge of Leetonia, Ohio. Each brick oven is twelve feet in diameter, with stone-faced fronts and dirt fill around the structures. Two deep channels between the rows once held railroad tracks, so coke could be raked straight from the ovens into rail cars. The ovens baked coal from local mines into coke for blast furnaces run by the Leetonia Iron & Coal Co., and after 1873 by the Cherry Valley Iron & Coal Co. and its successor. These companies founded Leetonia in 1865 and dominated its economy for decades. The iron companies were dismantled in the 1930s during the Great Depression, and the furnaces and mills were demolished and their sites filled and graded. The coke ovens are the only visible remnant of that industry and are described as the largest known beehive coke oven complex in Ohio. The tracks were removed during World War II, and the channels are now water-filled.","period_of_significance":"1866-c. 1930","architect_builder":"Leetonia Iron & Coal Co.; Cherry Valley Iron & Coal Co.","architectural_style":"No Style","criteria":["A"],"status_note":"Now part of a park with a walking track; the channels between the ovens are water-filled and the associated mills and furnaces have been leveled.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:07.182426-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/93000404.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/93000404/686dfe6a04-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/93000404/686dfe6a04-1600.webp","licence":"CC0","author":"Roseohioresident","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cherry_Valley_Coke_Ovens_3.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Roseohioresident</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:Cherry_Valley_Coke_Ovens_3.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71987246","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry_Valley_Coke_Ovens","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5092496"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/columbiana-county/cherry-valley-coke-ovens-93000404/"}