Christmas Lighting Installation in Ravenna, OH

Ravenna's holiday kickoff in late November opens with the Ravenna Balloon A-Fair's Light-Up Parade on Main Street, followed by a Christmas tree lighting on the Courthouse Lawn.

Benjamin Tappan reached the site on June 11, 1799, and his wife, Nancy Wright, suggested naming the settlement for Ravenna, Italy. Tappan filed the town plot on April 22, 1808, and Ravenna became the Portage County seat that year.

The first county courthouse and log jail went up in 1810, a brick courthouse replaced them in 1830, and that building was enlarged in 1881. State Routes 14, 44, 59 and 88 all pass through the city, which lies south of Ohio Turnpike exit 193 and north of Interstate 76 exit 38.

The Congregational Church, founded in 1822, was the first church in Ravenna, and the Catholic church was dedicated in 1842. A glassworks that opened in 1848 is counted as the town's first true industry. The Cleveland and Pittsburgh Railroad brought rail service in 1851, and by 1909 nearly 50 passenger trains arrived each day.

Telephones arrived in 1882, and East and West Main streets were the first to be paved, in 1898. Through the 1920s the A.C. Williams Company was the world's largest cast-iron toy maker.

Downtown Ravenna carries several National Register listings, among them the East Main Street Historic District between Clinton and Linden streets, the Phoenix Block at Main and Chestnut, and a row of Riddle Blocks along Main Street. The Etna House at 219 1/2 West Main Street, the C.A. Reed House at 229 West Riddle Street and the Griffin houses at 409 and 417 South Walnut Street are listed too.

Abraham Lincoln spoke from the train here on February 15, 1861, on his way to his inauguration, and a plaque from 1985 marks the spot. A $3 million restoration of the downtown in the late 1990s was meant to preserve its architecture and history.