Founding year: the first Oak Harbor post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
History grade
What drives Oak Harbor’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Oak Harbor is more historic than 52% of U.S. towns, #632 of 993 in Ohio. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
B−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Oak Harbor’s overall grade.
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 Oak Harbor’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (23% of Ohio towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C− to B+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±10.5 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (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 Oak Harbor’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
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.
Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
On the map
Oak Harbor on the map, 1900 to 1980
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Oak Harbor. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1900Oak Harbor 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 Oak Harbor.
The story so far
Oak Harbor, in brief
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Oak Harbor yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Oak Harbor is a village in Ottawa County, Ohio, United States. The population was 2,821 at the 2020 census. Oak Harbor is 30 miles (48 km) east of Toledo. It lies a short distance southwest of the Davis–Besse Nuclear Power Station, one of two nuclear power plants in Ohio.
Its first post office opened in 1862. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 2,759 to 2,821 (+2%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Timeline
Oak Harbor, 1862 to 1984
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
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.
The Oak Harbor post office opened in 1862, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Oak Harbor rank for history?
Oak Harbor is more historic than 52% of U.S. towns, #632 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.
How old are the homes in Oak Harbor?
38% of Oak Harbor’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±10.5 points), against a typical 15% for an Ohio town; the median home was built in 1953.
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 (6), 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 and Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
1911
1911
1911
1914
1914