Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 80% of U.S. towns · #306 of 993 in Ohio. What drives it
4 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 10 buildings. Below: 6 old photos and papers, maps from 1906 on, and the census since 1830.
Ravenna Township dates its founding to 1799 (Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history agree). The census first counted it in 1830.
More historic than 80% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Ravenna Township is more historic than 80% of U.S. towns, #306 of 993 in Ohio. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its National Register listings ranks highest and its share of homes from before 1940 lowest.
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 Ravenna Township’s 15.4 sits above most of its state (79% of Ohio towns have fewer) while its 14 historic buildings outnumber those of 78% of U.S. towns.
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 →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Another post office, Campbellsport, opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Ravenna Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Ravenna Township.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In the archivePortage County, Ohio School Certificate
In the archiveThe John F. Byers Mach. Co., Ravenna, Ohio, Mfgrs of Geared Locomotives, Hoisting Engines…
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveRavenna, Ohio. Cleveland Worsted Mills Co. Stack 175 Feet High - DPLA - 4abfd85bc7abd3ca9…From Wikipedia’s history of Ravenna Township.
Ravenna was founded by Benjamin Tappan, who arrived there on June 11, 1799, to lay claim in his father's name to land purchased in the Connecticut Western Reserve. Tappan did not stay in the area for long, however, but built a settlement of log cabins before returning to Connecticut during the summer of 1800.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Ravenna Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
County, then from 1862 till 1870 he held the position of foreman of masonry on the Atlantic & Great Western Railroad. In 1866 he purchased a farm in Ravenna Township, and there his family resided. He was Inspector of Masonry for the city of Cleveland, Ohio, in 1870, and in 1871 foreman of & force of men for E. W. Ensign, contractor on the Lake Shore Road. In 1872 Mr. Cook formed a partnership with Wanzer Holcomb, in taking contracts for various railroads and city corporations. In 1881 he built the Ravenna Mills on Main Street, and the Cleveland & Pittsburgh Railroad, and he now devotes
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Harmon. An opening was soon made in the woods and sown with wheat brought out by Sheldon, the gi'ass seed being sown in the same field. Benjamin Tappan put in a few acres of corn and vegetables in 1800, on his land in the southeast corner of Ravenna Township, and the same fall planted the ground in wheat. William Chard and Conrad Boosinger, both of whom settled in Tappan's neighborhood, also planted small fields of the latter cereal in the fall of 1800. Asa Hall made the first clearing in Atwater Township early in 1800, and put in some corn, which was succeeded the next fall by wheat. In
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.
3 decades in the archive, from the 1850s to the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Ravenna Township’s page.
Retake this view · +15The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Between 306 and 12,069 people in every census since 1830.
18 censuses, 1830–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Ravenna Township’s Wikipedia page.
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1799, according to Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history of the town. Ravenna Township’s post office opened in 1841, and the census of 1830 counted 306 people here.
Ravenna Township is more historic than 80% of U.S. towns, #306 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.
4 listings: 3 buildings, among them the Horace Y. Beebe House (listed 1983, the first), and 1 historic district, the Cottage Hill Farm, with 10 contributing buildings. 14 historic buildings in all.
12% of Ravenna Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.5 points), against a typical 15% for an Ohio town; the median home was built in 1982.
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
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), the National Register of Historic Places (4), Wikipedia, 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 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.
1859
c. 1907
1908