History · Logan

Logan dates to 1816, and 32% of its homes were built before 1940

More historic than 97% of U.S. towns · #32 of 993 in Ohio. What drives it

7 places in town are on the National Register, among them two historic districts with 275 buildings between them. Below: 10 old photos and papers, maps from 1886 on, and the census since 1820.

1816founded

7on the National Register

32%homes built before 1940

10old photos & papers

3famous people

Add an old photo Share a memory

From Logan’s archive · credits on each photo

Quick answers

How Logan began

When was Logan founded?

1816

Logan dates its founding to 1816 (Wikidata). The census first counted it in 1820.

First census: 100 in 18202020 census: 7,296210 years

How historic is Logan?

A⁺

More historic than 97% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.

What drives the grade ↓

Founding year: Wikidata. First post office: 1817.The full story ↓

History grade

What drives Logan’s History grade

On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Logan is more historic than 97% of U.S. towns, #32 of 993 in Ohio. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its National Register listings ranks highest and its age lowest.

A⁺

HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Logan’s overall grade.

Founding era1816, from Wikidata: founded 1776–1849, an older era than 75% of U.S. townsA⁻Homes built before 194032.4% of homes (±6.0) · typical OH town 14.5% · U.S. 8.4%A National Register7 listings, 279 historic buildings, 399 per 10,000 residents · typical OH town 2.9 · U.S. 2.4A⁺

All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 97%

NewerOlder

Ohio towns of 2,500+ (993)Ahead of 97%

Ohio towns list about as much on the Register as the country (a typical Ohio town has 2.9 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Logan’s 399 sits above most of its state (98% of Ohio towns have fewer) while its 279 historic buildings outnumber those of 95% of U.S. towns.

How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from A to A+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±6.0 points). Two sources give 1816.

Founding year: Wikidata (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →

What stands out about Logan’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A historic districtThe Logan Historic District takes in 271 historic buildings.Mapped building by building5 fire insurance maps, 1886 to 1914, drew every building in Logan.On the map since 19075 editions of the USGS map, 1907 to 1992. Watch Logan change.Landmarks on the Register7 places on the National Register.

★ What stands out · On the National Register

7 listings protect 279 historic buildings

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

places listed

National Historic Landmarks

none yet

historic buildings protected

279

each building in a district counts

first listed

1980

Logan City Hall

BuildingsDistrictsStructures

Architectural styles listings

Italianate2

Queen Anne2

Greek Revival2

Victorian Italianate1

Late Gothic Revival1

Colonial Revival1

Logan City HallItalianate · Built 1853

Charles Worth James HouseGreek Revival

McCarthy-Blosser-Dillon BuildingVictorian Italianate

Saint John the Evangelist Catholic Church ComplexLate Gothic Revival · Built 1897

All 7 listings

Inter County Highway 360Structure · listed 2002 Logan Historic DistrictDistrict · listed 2010 Riley Specialty Shoe CompanyBuilding · listed 2023

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

Every building

Logan, building by building, 1886–1914

Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.

1886Sheet 1 of 4

Edition

Sheets

+3 more at the Library of Congress

BrickWoodStone

Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

On the map

Logan on the map, 1907 to 1992

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Logan. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

1907Logan sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Logan.

The story

How Logan came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Logan.

Read it all →

Residents named the town in honor of Chief Logan of the Mingo people. He and his band lived in this area at the time of European-American settlement. Ohio Governor Thomas Worthington laid out the village in 1816.

Logan was the first city in the state of Ohio to install a double roundabout. Located at the interchange of Ohio State Route 664 and U.S. Route 33, the roundabouts were officially opened to traffic on December 4, 2013.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Logan, 1872–1880

Passages that mention Logan, cut from the printed page as they were published.

Sterling, Ky., June 9, 18G4, where he was wounded in the right ankle joint, causing amputation of the foot, returning to his home in Logan Co. In 1869 he was elected from Richland Tp. to the office of Recorder of Logan Co., and re-elected in 1872-'75, filling this office for nine years, serving the… — **History of Logan County and Ohio**1880 · page 594Read the page →
Read the text
Sterling, Ky., June 9, 18G4, where he was wounded in the right ankle joint, causing amputation of the foot, returning to his home in Logan Co. In 1869 he was elected from Richland Tp. to the office of Recorder of Logan Co., and re-elected in 1872-'75, filling this office for nine years, serving the people of Logan Co. as he served the Union, faith-
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.

th^ the Miami of the Lake: which shall be known by the name of Logan: Provided, that the jurisdiction of the said county of Logan shall extend over all that territory lying north of said county, and all crimes that shall be committed within the territory aforesaid, shall be considered as having bee… — **History of Logan County and Ohio**1880 · page 241Read the page →
Read the text
th^ the Miami of the Lake: which shall be known by the name of Logan: Provided, that the jurisdiction of the said county of Logan shall extend over all that territory lying north of said county, and all crimes that shall be committed within the territory aforesaid, shall be considered as having been committed within the said county of Logan."
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.

Thomas Cowgill, M. D.— Dear i)octor.-— Mr. Antrim, of Logan County, called on me a few weeks ago with an urgent request that, as I was an old pioneer of Ohio, I should prepare and send to your address in some readable form, some scraps ofearly pioneer history, connecting with them such incidents an… — **The history of Champaign and Logan counties**1872 · page 12Read the page →
Read the text
Thomas Cowgill, M. D.— Dear i)octor.-— Mr. Antrim, of Logan County, called on me a few weeks ago with an urgent request that, as I was an old pioneer of Ohio, I should prepare and send to your address in some readable form, some scraps ofearly pioneer history, connecting with them such incidents and facts as came within my own knowledge, embracing the times up to about 1820, for the purpose of incorporating them with a proposed history of the early settlements, and more particularly within my own early localities.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.

Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

Timeline

Logan, 1816 to 1956

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

19th century
1816
FoundingLogan is established
1817Post officeThe Logan post office opens
1830Born hereCharles Vernon Culver is born here
1853BuiltLogan City Hall is built
1874In the archiveThe Ohio whiskey war - the ladies of Logan singing hymns in front of barrooms in aid of t…
1897BuiltSaint John the Evangelist Catholic Church Complex is built
1899In the archiveLogan-General Clay Hocking Brick Redevelopment (CORF & COAF)
20th century
1907On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
1940Born hereKen Byers is born here
1956Born hereCurtis Scaparrotti is born here

By decade

Logan, decade by decade

2 decades in the archive, from the 1870s to the 1890s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1870s–1890s10 items

The Ohio whiskey war - the ladies of Logan singing hymns in front of barrooms in aid of the temperance movement

1874The Ohio whiskey war - the ladies of Logan singing hy…

Logan-General Clay Hocking Brick Redevelopment (CORF & COAF)

1899Logan-General Clay Hocking Brick Redevelopment (CORF …

1900s–1990snothing yet

Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

Add from your album

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Retake this viewThe Ohio whiskey war - the ladies of Logan singing hymns in front of barrooms in aid of the temperance movement, 1874

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Logan’s page.

Retake this view · +15

People over time

Logan, census by census

Grew from 100 people in 1820 to 7,296 in 2020, more than tenfold.

19 censuses, 1820–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Logan’s Wikipedia page.

Famous people

3 famous people were born in Logan

Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.

See all →

Curtis ScaparrottiUnited States Army General · b. 1956

Charles Vernon CulverAmerican politician · b. 1830

Ken ByersAmerican football player · b. 1940

Places that used to be

Old corners, places now gone and burying grounds

Logan’s post office has been open since 1817.

Hamlets and corners on the map

South Logan

Gone or out of use

Ball Schoolschool

1cemetery inside Logan

Old Logan

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Help out

Finish Logan’s story

Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.

Decades since 1900 with photos

00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s

0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.

Retake an old viewThe Ohio whiskey war - the ladies of Lo…: stand where they stood+15 Share a family photoSign in to add one+10

Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

West LoganIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Logan’s history

What year was Logan founded?

In 1816, according to Wikidata. Logan’s post office opened in 1817, and the census of 1820 counted 100 people here.

How does Logan rank for history?

Logan is more historic than 97% of U.S. towns, #32 of 993 in Ohio. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.

What is on the National Register in Logan?

7 listings: 4 buildings, among them the Logan City Hall (listed 1980, the first), 2 historic districts, the Saint John the Evangelist Catholic Church Complex and the Logan Historic District, with 275 contributing buildings, and 1 structure. 279 historic buildings in all.

How old are the homes in Logan?

32% of Logan’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.0 points), against a typical 15% for an Ohio town; the median home was built in 1963.

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →

Start a conversation

Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

From Wikimedia Commons (9), the Library of Congress (1), Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (7), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.

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