National Register of Historic Places
Zoar Historic District (Boundary Increase)
Zoar, Tuscarawas County, Ohio
The record
- Listed
- September 10, 2013
- Type
- Historic district
- Address
- Roughly bounded by Zoar Cemetery, Cemetery Rd., Lake Dr., Tuscarawas R., NC 212, 5th, E. 2nd & East Sts., Zoar
- County
- Tuscarawas
- State
- Ohio
- Contributing resources
- 3 buildings, 2 structures, 1 site
- Coordinates
- 40.61245, -81.42385
- Reference number
- 13000701
The story
Written by AI from this property's National Register nomination and the record above; every sentence is checked against its sources before it appears here. Corrections: privacy@treealive.com
The Zoar Historic District (Boundary Increase) is a historic district in the village of Zoar, Tuscarawas County, covering 208 acres and listed in the National Register in 2013. This boundary increase added three buildings, one site and two structures, and construction within the surveyed area began in 1817 with the Bimeler Cabin.
Why it's listed
It was listed under criteria A and C, with national-level significance in European ethnic heritage, social history, architecture and landscape architecture. The nomination gives its period of significance as 1936 to 1937.
Physical character
Many of the earliest buildings use half-timbered fachwerk construction filled with wattle and daub, while others have log walls, common-bond brick, or clapboard and board-and-batten siding. Roofs are covered in flat clay Zoar tile, slate, wood shingle or asphalt shingle, over foundations of sandstone block or rubble stone. The Ohio Historical Society reconstructed the blacksmith, tin and wagon shops from historic photographs in the 1970s, while other buildings were restored to their 1898 appearance in 1970, 1980 and 2004.
Historical context
The buildings are linked to the Society of Separatists of Zoar, the German religious community that settled here, with their design attributed to Joseph Bimeler. The State of Ohio recognized the group as a corporation in 1832, and the Separatists' celibacy policy was lifted in 1830. A cholera epidemic struck in 1834, and in 1840 the community ended its practice of removing children from their parents.