In a press release shared on Monday afternoon, Downtown Mansfield, Inc. (DMI) announced that a portion of Mansfield’s central city is now officially listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
In its press release, DMI shared: “Our National Register listing will offer new opportunities and benefits in our effort to preserve the history of Downtown Mansfield.
The Historic District of Downtown Mansfield, which is roughly bounded by Fifth Street, Diamond Street, Second Street, and Mulberry Street, was nominated for a National Register Listing in 2018. The National Register Listing designated the Historic District of Downtown Mansfield as significant and provides property owners in the area an opportunity for historic tax credits on their projects.
This is an exciting honor for the Historic District of Downtown Mansfield. It will offer downtown property owners and community entities the resources and opportunities they may need to preserve the history and beauty of downtown Mansfield and its architecture.”
On learning of the news, a spokesperson for Preservation Ohio, Ohio’s original statewide historic preservation organization, shared, “Congratulations to everyone who worked on the National Register nomination for downtown Mansfield, and in particular those who, over the last several decades, have worked to preserve the built heritage of one of Ohio’s great communities. This is both a recognition of the value of that heritage to your city and the nation and also a key to unlock exciting development potential that will capitalize on Mansfield’s unique voice and past.”
This past December, the Ohio Historic Site Preservation Advisory Board recommended National Register status for this area, saying, ““The proposed historic district reflects Mansfield’s growth and development from the 1860s to 1968. Central Park, or the square, a focal point of the district, is a feature of the original plan of Mansfield, which was settled in 1808. Mansfield evolved from a rural county seat to an early railroad junction starting in the 1840s, then into a regional center of commerce and manufacturing from the late 19th century through the 1960s. Buildings in the proposed district date from the 1860s, when the former H.L. Reed Co. on the square was completed, to 1968, when the fifth Richland County Courthouse, also on the square, was finished in a style known as New Formalism, favored at the time for major public buildings like Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center. The historic district includes nearly 100 downtown buildings illustrating a variety of Victorian and later architectural styles, many by noted Mansfield architects such as Vernon Redding, Althouse & Jones and Thomas G. Zaugg.”
Properties included in the National Register of Historic Places, including contributing buildings in National Register Historic Districts, are eligible for various financial incentives for renovation and restoration work. Federal projects involving adverse effects on such properties are also subject to heightened review.
These are not the only Mansfield buildings eligible for tax credits and other types of financial incentives. Some of those protected by the city’s historic preservation ordinance are also eligible, though not located in the new district.
A map of buildings in the new district is featured below.
