Built in 1897 in the Richardsonian Romanesque. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1976. A historic map-sheet match is not published yet. The record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
From the record
“All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church, built in 1894 in the Richardsonian Romanesque style is a historic building located at 25 Church Street in Bellville, Ohio. On January 1, 1976, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.”
Wikipedia article All Souls Unitarian-Universalist Church, CC BY-SA 4.0.
one of 61 National Register listings in Richland County · listed in 1976 · category: Building · built in 1897, Richardsonian Romanesque.
National Register reference number.76001520- the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
Wise, from Pennsylvania, northeast quarter of Section 34 ; ^Martin Crow, from Pennsylvania, northwest quarter of Section 26 ; Casper Fitting, northwest quarter of Section 33 ; Thomas Griswold. northwest quarter of Section 30 ; William Casper, from Kentuck}-, northeast quarter of Section 27 ; Benjamin Hennis, northeast quarter of Section 19 ; John Robinson, from Pennsylvania, southwest quarter of Section 11; John Gatton, from Maryland, northeast quarter of Section 13 ; Jacob Culver, from Pennsylvania, northeast quarter of Section 10 ; Barson Sweet, from "V^ermont, northwest quarter of Section 16 ; Abram Vaughn, from ^Maryland, southwest quarter of Section 15 ; James Doughty, from New York, southwest quarter of Section 9 ; Abineal Dodge, from New York, northeast quarter of Section 16 ; Michael Shuey, from Pennsylvania, southeast quarter of Section 6 ; Adam Shafer, from Pennsylvania, southwest quarter of Section 6 ; Christian Aungst, from Virginia, northeast quarter of Section 8 ; Benjamin Potts, from Vermont, southwest quarter of Section 7 ; Chancy D. Wright, wheelwright, in Bellville ; John Weaver, from A'irginia. northeast quarter of Section 18 ; B. F. Thrailkill. from Maryland, northeast quarter of Section 28 ; Caleb Selb}-, southeast quarter of Section 19 ; Gideon Cornwall, from Virginia, northwest quarter of Section 1 5 ; Amos Hartly, from Mar3-land, northwest quarter of Section 31 ; Peter Boham, southwest quarter of Section 20 ; John McDowel, northeast quarter of Section 21 ; William Mahagan, from Mar^-land, southwest quarter of Section 31 ; Peter Strine ; Samuel Bevo, northeast quarter of Section 31 ; Thomas Durbin, from Virginia, southeast quarter of Section 9 ; Scott Durbin, from Virginia, southeast quarter of Section 9 ; William Price, northeast quarter of Section 16 ; John Fordney ; Philip 3Ierring, from New York, southwest quarter of Section 4 ; Phineas ^lerring (wheelwright), from New Jersey, southwest quarter of Section 4 ; Timotliy Evarts, from A^ennont. southeast quarter of
Section 22 ; Geo. Aimgst, from Virginia, southeast quarter of Section 1 5 ; John Fowler, southwest quarter of Section 14 ; John Boham, northeast quarter of Section 20 ; Robert Bell, Sr., and Robert Bell Jr., from New Jersey, northeast quarter of Section 0 ; Zephaniah Bell, northwest quarter of Section 4 ; John Study, from Pennsylvania, southwest quarter of Section 25 ; John "Watson, southeast quarter of Section 7 ; Joseph Hix, from Pennsylvania, northeast quarter of Section 25 ; Henry Swank, from Pennsylvania, northwest quarter of Section 34 ; James Selb}', southeast quarter of Section 19 ; Jacob Stout, from Pennsylvania, northwest quarter of Section 7 ; Jonathan Oldfleld, came to township in 1808, from New York, northeast quarter of Section 22 ; William Oldfield, came in 1810, from New York, southeast quarter of Section 16 ; Samuel Oldfield, came in 1810, from New York, northeast quarter of Section 16 ; John Weirick, came in 1809, from Maryland, northwest quarter of Section 17 ; Peter Weirick, came in 1809, from Mar^dand, southwest quarter of Section 8 ; John Zent, Sr., came in 1810, from Pennsylvania, northwest quarter of Section 9 ; John Zent, Jr., came in 1810, from Pennsylvania, southwest quarter of Section 7 ; Duncan Spear, came in 1810, from Vermont, southwest quarter of Section 15 ; William Spear, came in 1810, shoemaker in Bellville ; Abraham Smith, in 1810, from Vermont, northwest quarter of Section 22 ; John Leedy, came in 1811, from Pennsylvania, northwest quarter of Section 35.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 5 fires within 5 miles of All Souls Unitarian-Universalist Church between
2005 and 2018, burning about 10 acres in total. None started naturally. None was recorded as arson.
Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted
here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
Reported cause
Fires
Debris and open burning
4
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
1
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. Museums hold 655 specimens
collected within 10 miles of All Souls Unitarian-Universalist Church between 1835 and
1973: 470 Plantae, 177 Animalia, 8 Fungi. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by A.M.H., Aknown, Berra, T. M. (Tim M.) & Berra, T. M. (Tim M.) and others. Each is a
physical object with a catalogue
number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was
collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be
concluded from a species being absent.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
4 workings within 5 miles of All Souls Unitarian-Universalist Church: 2 past producers, 2 producers.
2 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
No historic map-sheet match is published
for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs
a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
Browse the county's mapped places while that work is
pending.
Named in the fire insurance atlases
Sanborn surveyors printed an index of the
town's establishments at the front of each atlas. This property is named in
one, read straight off the scanned sheet.
When this property was proposed for the
National Register, someone wrote the case for it: what the building is,
and why it matters. That document is a federal record in the public domain.
It is quoted below word for word, never summarised. The text was read off the scanned case file by machine, so the
occasional stray character is the recogniser's and the 1970s
typewriter's.
Description of the property
The building is approximately 50 feet square, and its gable crest and tower are member named Garber, while the capstones and archstones are a varicolored sandstone The building interior is very simple, a high round arch procenium separates the organ and lecturn from the congregation, once seated on simple oak chairs in the lecture The windows are of translucent colored glass purchased in Boston, many as memorials the lecture hall or from the southwest door. CONDITION EXCELLENT XGOOD FAIR DESCRIPTION The structure is sandstone which had been quarried locally and dressed on the site.
both about 35 feet high.The entrance to the lecture room is by means of stairs CHECK ONE within the base of the tower.The tower which is on the northwest corner is The masonry is rock faced, squared broken course which shows great mastery of stone and into the lecture hall.The curved part of the dais has been used to hold memorials arched openings which nicely compliment the arched openings of the entry and of to deceased members. completely attached to the structure. The basement has been used from the erection of the structure as a social hall as The organ, and the lecturn are on a 6 inch dais which curves out on the west but are noteworthy for their gorgeous interplay of color. midpoint of the facade.The stone reads All Souls Universalist Church,1894.
X_UNALTERED The tower has a low pyramidal roof with a metal cresting.The tower has l2 small RUINS UNEXPOSED the north facade.The north facade is centered by an eloquent triple round arched cutting.
Briggs of Cleveland, but it was more likely the desire of the congregation. stood directly south of this site, but it was moved several blocks north where it is employed as master mason. A church member, Lewis Garber, who had built several of is finding it very difficult to maintain the building. The church, however, is the 1894-1896 1600-1699 LAW ECONOMICS COMMERCE 1400-1499 ARCHEOLOGY-HISTORIC EDUCATION AGRICULTURE PERIOD BUILDER/ARCHITECT EXPLORATION/SETTLEMENT SIGNIFICANCE INVENTION PREHISTORIC LITERATURE no construction was to begin on a new church. Register would do much to maintain this impact.
ART _TRANSPORTATION _COMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY religious viewpoint was never prevalent in the Midwest does not minimize the impact 1890 saw the first discussion of a new church; the old church building built in 1850 although consistant with the buildings in the village it is unusual for Ohio's surviving records of the church indicate that there were over six years of discussion MILITARY grateful to the architect for the accoustics that resulted. ARCHEOLOGY-PREHISTORIC as well as the red sandstone popular in Ohio for the style.It is not ornate and rough masonry, and round arched windows characteristic of this phase of architecture, The All Souls Church is unusual because although it is not large,it is very well was among the early organizers.
Today this congregation, which has never been large, Reverend Doolittle, who was to become an important figure in the Universalist religion, _ENGINEERING and comfortable scale are major parts of its attraction. and decision making by church members.before the church was occupied in 1896. The congregation was founded in 1822 and organized at the Bellville site in 1847. In 1891 a committee selected Briggs as architect and J.S.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 76001520, 12 pages, held by the National Archives in Record
Group 79. See the
catalogue record.
Listed places nearby
6 within 8 miles
Other National Register properties close
enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both
positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties
to their map sheets.
Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
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