Ledebur, Larry and Susan Whitelaw
Center for Sacred Landmarks, Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs, 2006

Village landmark churches are a unique legacy of the settlement of Ohio's Western Reserve. This legacy represents the faith of the settlers, the congregations they formed, and the houses of worship they created in villages and countrysides. The forty 19th century churches presented in this book were selected as exemplary landmark churches because they have significance along one or more of the following dimensions: architecture, history, or their dominant position in their setting. Some are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. All of these churches still stand in villages, small towns, and rural areas of northeast Ohio, although some now serve as solitary sentinels in disappearing communities. Each of these churches is an important part of the identity of place. The dominate and give character to such physical spaces as village greens and rural skylines and provide a focus for community identity. They connect people to locations because they remain in memory as important landmarks of place. And they remind people, regardless of faith, of a larger context for their lives, inviting personal reflection and contemplation of the common good.