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Buildings on North Park Place, Painesville, Ohio, September 2025Photo: Niagara · CC BY-SA 3.0
–Not graded
History · Painesville Township

Painesville Township dates to 1800, and 19% of its homes were built before 1940

4 places in town are on the National Register. Below: 11 old photos and papers, maps from 1905 on, and the census since 1820.

1800founded
4on the National Register
19%homes built before 1940
11old photos & papers
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Painesville Township’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Painesville Township began

When was Painesville Township founded?

1800

Painesville Township dates its founding to 1800 (Wikidata). The census first counted it in 1820.

First census: 257 in 18202020 census: 20,453226 years
Founding year: Wikidata. First post office: 1818.The full story ↓

What stands out about Painesville Township’s past

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

On the map since 19054 editions of the USGS map, 1905 to 1994. Watch Painesville Township change.Lost villages6 hamlets and corners are still on the map.Deep rootsEstablished in 1800: 226 years of Painesville Township.Landmarks on the Register4 places on the National Register.
★ What stands out · On the map

Painesville Township on the map, 1905 to 1994

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

Painesville Township on the 1905 USGS mapPainesville Township on the 1960 USGS mapPainesville Township on the 1970 USGS mapPainesville Township on the 1994 USGS map1905Perry 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 Painesville Township.

Places that used to be

Old corners, places now gone and burying grounds

Old hamlets and crossroads still carry their names on the map.

Hamlets and corners on the map
Avenues Mobile EstatesFairgrounds Mobile Home ParkGolfway PinesPainesville on-the-LakeShorelandSpringlake Trailer Park
Gone or out of use
Casement AirportairportLake County HomebuildingNike Site CL-11CmilitaryNike Site CL-11Lmilitary
1cemetery inside Painesville Township
Mentor Avenue

Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Timeline

Painesville Township, 1800 to 1925

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1800
    FoundingPainesville Township is established
  3. 1880In the archiveLandscape near Painesville title QS:P1476,en:"Landscape near Painesville "label QS:Len,"L…
  4. 1899In the archivePainesville-Lakeview Bluffs Phase I & II (CORF)
  5. 20th century
  6. 1905On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  7. 1925BuiltFairport Harbor West Breakwater Light is built
The story

How Painesville Township came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Painesville Township.

Read it all →

Painesville is included in what is historically referred to as the Connecticut Western Reserve. General Edward Paine (1746–1841), a native of Bolton, Connecticut, who had served as a captain in the Connecticut militia during the war, and John Walworth arrived in 1800 with a party of sixty-six settlers, among the first in the Western Reserve. General Paine later represented the region in the territorial legislature of the Northwest Territory.

ChaptersUnderground Railroad

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

By decade

Painesville Township, decade by decade

2 decades in the archive, from the 1880s to the 1890s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1880s–1890s11 items
Landscape near Painesville title QS:P1476,en:"Landscape near Painesville "label QS:Len,"Landscape near Painesville "1880Landscape near Painesville title QS:P1476,en:"Landsca…Civil War veteran Joseph Adams Potter) - Tibbals & Barnard1888Civil War veteran Joseph Adams Potter) - Tibbals & Ba…Painesville-Lakeview Bluffs Phase I & II (CORF)1899Painesville-Lakeview Bluffs Phase I & II (CORF)Painesville-Lakeview Bluffs Phase I & II (CORF)1899Painesville-Lakeview Bluffs Phase I & II (CORF)Painesville-Lakeview Bluffs Phase I & II (CORF)1899Painesville-Lakeview Bluffs Phase I & II (CORF)Painesville-Lakeview Bluffs Phase I & II (CORF)1899Painesville-Lakeview Bluffs Phase I & II (CORF)Painesville-Lakeview Bluffs Phase I & II (CORF)1899Painesville-Lakeview Bluffs Phase I & II (CORF)Painesville-Lakeview Bluffs Phase I & II (CORF)1899Painesville-Lakeview Bluffs Phase I & II (CORF)Painesville-Lakeview Bluffs Phase I & II (CORF)1899Painesville-Lakeview Bluffs Phase I & II (CORF)Painesville-Lakeview Bluffs Phase I & II (CORF)1899Painesville-Lakeview Bluffs Phase I & II (CORF)Painesville-Lakeview Bluffs Phase I & II (CORF)1899Painesville-Lakeview Bluffs Phase I & II (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.

Landscape near Painesville title QS:P1476,en:"Landscape near Painesville "label QS:Len,"Landscape near Painesville "
Retake this viewLandscape near Painesville title QS:P1476,en:"Landscape near Painesville "label QS:Len,"Landscape near Painesville ", 1880

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

Retake this view · +15
On the National Register

4 historic places in Painesville Township

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

places listed
4
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
4
each building in a district counts
first listed
1973
Uri Seeley House
Uri Seeley HouseCasement HouseFairport Harbor West Breakwater Light, built 1925
BuildingsStructures

Architectural styles listings

Victorian Italianate1
Unknown1
Uri Seeley HouseBuilding
Casement HouseVictorian Italianate
Fairport Harbor West Breakwater LightUnknown · Built 1925

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

People over time

Painesville Township, census by census

05,00010,00015,00020,000185019001950200020,312

Grew from 257 people in 1820 to 20,312 in 2020, more than tenfold.

20 censuses, 1820–2020.

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

Help out

Finish Painesville Township’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 viewLandscape near Painesville title QS:P14…: stand where they stood+15Share 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.

Painesville11 historic placesAConcord TownshipIts storyCPerry Township1 historic placeB+Mentor13 historic placesB+Fairport Harbor1 historic placeB+Grand RiverIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Painesville Township’s history

What year was Painesville Township founded?

In 1800, according to Wikidata. Painesville Township’s post office opened in 1818, and the census of 1820 counted 257 people here.

What is on the National Register in Painesville Township?

4 listings: 2 buildings, among them the Uri Seeley House (listed 1973, the first), and 1 structure.

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). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (11), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (3), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.