Zoar Historic District (Boundary Increase)

Zoar, in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, is a small village founded in 1817 by German Separatists who soon organized as a communal society to pay off their land debt and secure their livelihood. Surviving buildings date from 1817 to 1898 and include the 1835 Number One House, a brick Georgian-style residence, along with a garden and greenhouse, a sewing house, a church finished about 1854, a boys' dormitory, a hotel and a canal inn. Sites of a lime kiln, foundry, woolen factory, grist mill and brewery remain as foundations with archaeological potential. Under Joseph Baumeler the community prospered in agriculture and industry, and its holdings were worth over a million dollars when he died in 1853. Economic decline and internal dissension ended the society in 1898. The district was enlarged to protect additional buildings and sites from development, highway and power line projects. Because of its isolation, the village retains much of its early character, and the Ohio Historical Society maintains key buildings.