Christmas Lighting Installation in North Lima, OH

North Lima is an unincorporated community and census designated place at the center of Beaver Township, covering 7.07 square miles. That works out to a density of about 200 people per square mile, far lower than Boardman Township a few miles north.

Density is not a trivia point on a holiday job. It sets the viewing distance, and the viewing distance sets everything else.

At that density houses tend to sit farther apart and farther from the road, and many of the people who see a display will see it from a car. North Lima sits at the intersection of State Routes 7, 164 and 165, so some of that traffic is moving at highway speed.

Detail read at 45 miles an hour is detail nobody sees. What survives is the strong horizontal of a roof edge, the vertical of a lit tree or column, and clear separation between elements.

That argues for a specific design approach for a home set back from the road, and it is the opposite of the village approach. Fewer elements at larger scale. Longer uninterrupted runs.

Enough contrast between the lit line and the dark field behind it that the shape resolves from the road. A display built for a suburban sidewalk reads as a faint scatter at that distance, no matter how carefully it was hung.

Elevation is worth noting because it is higher than the valley. North Lima sits at roughly 1,096 feet, against about 856 feet at Youngstown, and the nearest long term weather station at the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport records seasonal snowfall averaging 67.8 inches with 43 days a year at or below freezing. Open ground at that elevation can also carry more wind than a sheltered street does.

The village of North Lima dates to about 1826, when it was platted, and its name may have come from Lima, New York. Its post office has been open since 1832. Beaver Township, around it, was organized in 1811, belonged to Columbiana County until 1846, and then became part of Mahoning County.

State Route 165 began in 1923 as a road from North Lima to East Palestine, and in 1926 State Route 164 was rerouted from North Lima to Youngstown along the older Route 7. Route 164 now ends at Interstate 680 on the Beaver and Boardman township line, between North Lima and Boardman.

Woodworth lies just north of North Lima along State Routes 7 and 626, next to Boardman. It was first called Steamtown, and a post office by that name ran from 1857 to 1860, followed by a Woodworth post office from 1874 until 1905. Beaver Township also borders Canfield Township to the northwest, Green Township to the west and Springfield Township to the east, and part of the city of Columbiana reaches into its south end.