Mansfield is a city in Richland County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. The population was 47,534 at the 2020 census. Located approximately halfway between Cleveland and Columbus via Interstate 71, it is part of the Northeast Ohio region in the western foothills of the Allegheny Plateau.
The city was founded in 1808 on a fork of the Mohican River in a hilly region surrounded by fertile farmlands, and became a manufacturing center owing to its location with numerous railroad lines. After the decline of heavy industry, the city's economy has since diversified into a service economy, including retailing, education, and healthcare sectors.
The city anchors the Mansfield metropolitan area, which had a population of 124,936 residents in 2020, while the greater Mansfield–Ashland–Bucyrus combined statistical area had 219,408 residents. Mansfield is the largest city in the Mid-Ohio region. Its official nickname is "The Fun Center of Ohio"; Mansfield is also known as the "Carousel Capital of Ohio."
History
Early history and founding
thumb|Welcome sign on Ohio Route 13
thumb|View of downtown Mansfield in 1908, looking south on North Main Street from Third Street
Mansfield was laid out and founded by James Hedges, Joseph Larwell, and Jacob Newman, and was platted in June 1808 as a settlement. It was named for Colonel Jared Mansfield, the United States Surveyor General who directed its planning.
It was originally platted as a square, known today as the public square or Central Park. At that time, there were less than a dozen settlers in Richland County and Ohio was still largely wilderness. After the war ended, the first courthouse and jail of Richland County were located in one of two blockhouses until 1816. The blockhouse was later used as a school with Eliza Wolf being its teacher.
Mansfield was incorporated as a village in 1828 and then as a city in 1857 with a population of 5,121. Between 1846 and 1863, the railroads came to the city with the Sandusky, Mansfield and Newark Railroad being the first railroad to reach Mansfield in 1846, the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway in 1849, and the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad in 1863. The city was a center of manufacturing and trade in the late 1880s thanks to the four railroads that passed through the community.
Dozens of manufacturing businesses operated in the city, producing goods like brass objects, doors, linseed oil, paper boxes, suspenders, and numerous other items. Mansfield's largest employer in 1888 was a cigar maker, Hautzenroeder & Company, that had 285 workers employed. In 1888, Frank B. Black borrowed $5,000 from relatives to start a brass foundry, the Ohio Brass Company, specializing in brass and bronze castings, stem brass goods, electric railway supplies and more. By 1890, 13,473 people lived in the city.
20th and 21st centuries
By 1908, the blockhouse became a symbol of Mansfield's heritage during its 100th birthday celebration, and in 1929, the blockhouse was relocated to its present location at South Park.
During the 1920s and 1930s, the Mansfield tire brand stood shoulder to shoulder with Goodyear, Goodrich, Firestone and Uniroyal, the "Big Four" tire name brands in the industry at the time.
In 1913, parts of Mansfield were flooded when the Great Flood of 1913 brought of rainfall across Ohio between March 24 and 25. The first road across America, the Lincoln Highway, came to the city in 1913, smoothing the path for economic growth. In 1924, Oak Hill Cottage, a Gothic Revival brick house, built in 1847 by John Robinson, superintendent of the Sandusky, Mansfield and Newark Railroad was the setting of The Green Bay Tree, Mansfield native Louis Bromfield's first novel.
In 1927, the 9-story Leland Hotel was constructed downtown on the southwest corner of Park Avenue West and South Walnut Street at a cost of $556,000. The Leland Hotel was the tallest building in Mansfield when completed, and was designed by architect Vernon Redding, that also designed the Mansfield Public Library, Farmers Bank Building, Mansfield Savings Bank Building and Mansfield General Hospital. What remains of the Leland Hotel today is the hotel's compass rose that was embedded in the sidewalk along Walnut Street where the front door of the hotel once was. In recent years, Mansfield's downtown, which once underscored the community's economic difficulties, has seen innovative revitalization through the establishment of Main Street Mansfield (known today as Downtown Mansfield, Inc.), and is a site of new business growth. In 1993, Lydia Reid was sworn in as the city's first female mayor and became the longest-serving mayor of Mansfield encompassing three four-year terms. Reid was succeeded in 2007 by Donald Culliver, the city's first black mayor.
In December 2009, the city was placed on fiscal watch by the state auditor citing substantial deficit balances in structural operating general funds. On August 19, 2010, Mansfield would become Ohio's largest city to be declared in fiscal emergency with a deficit of $3.8 million after city officials failed to pass measures on cost-savings and cut spending, blaming it on the Great Recession. The city's financial crisis lasted nearly four years before being lifted out of fiscal emergency on July 9, 2014.
Mansfield, in partnership with local and national partners, is addressing blight and economic stagnation in the city center.
Geography
thumb|Aerial photo with points of interest
Topography
Mansfield is located at (40.754856, −82.522855), directly between Columbus and Cleveland, however, the city lies in the western foothills of the Allegheny Plateau, and its elevation is among the highest of Ohio cities. The highest point in the city above sea level is located at the Woodland Reservoir, an underground water storage (service reservoir) along Woodland Road in southwest Mansfield. The elevation in downtown Mansfield, which is located at Central Park is above sea level, and at Mansfield Lahm Airport, the elevation is above sea level. The highest point in Richland County, second highest point in Ohio (after Campbell Hill) is between and above sea level is located southwest of the city, just off Lexington-Ontario Road at Apple Hill Orchards in Springfield Township.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which, is land and is water.
Mansfield is bordered by Madison Township to the east, northwest and southwest, Franklin Township to the north, Weller Township to the northeast, Washington Township to the south, Troy Township to the southwest, Springfield Township and the suburban city of Ontario to the west.
Climate
Mansfield has a humid continental climate (Köppen Dfa), typical of the Midwest, with four distinct seasons. Winters are cold and dry but typically bring a mix of rain, sleet, and snow with occasional heavy snowfall and icing. January is the coldest month with an average mean temperature of , Another notable snowstorm to impact the region was the Great Blizzard of 1978. The snowiest month on record was in February 2010, while winter snowfall amounts have ranged from in 1995–96 to in 1932–33. Springs are short with rapid transition from hard winter to sometimes very warm, and humid conditions. Summers are typically very warm, sometimes hot, and humid with temperatures exceeding 8 days per year on average. Monthly precipitation has ranged from in July 1992 to in December 1955, while for annual precipitation the historical range is in 1990 to in 1963.