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and vacant land. There are 120 primary structures, of which 80 are at least 70 years old. Within the proposed updated district boundaries, 66.7% of structures meet the age criteria. This percentage more than meets the Chapter 165 requirement for a minimum of 50% of structures to be 70 years or older. Continued Historical Relevance The original 1986 historic designation report produced by the Landmarks Commission contained a summary of why the area was chosen for recognition and those factors that made the area significant and worthy of preservation. Excerpt of Butternut Ridge Road Designation Report A two-mile strip of road with buildings on both sides 1/4 -mile south of a suburban commercial center, Butternut Ridge Historic District is a reminder of old Olmsted as well as a demonstration in compatibility. The 127 houses, three schools, cemetery and three businesses show a wide range of building styles, but represent each period from settlement to today. Styles vary in ornamentation, but are always of the simpler style of a popular housing type of the day. To see growth from settlement up to today, 1815 to 1985, one need only to travel the road and absorb the history that is visible. Originally the road was a country road with occasional farms. Today the occasional farm houses share the road with a cross-section of the way in which all of North Olmsted developed. The central thread of this district is the prehistoric ridge, left by receding oceans, used by Indians as a trail west, widened by settlers, paved with early experimental concrete processes, and today a busy residential tree -lined street. Factors of Historical Significance 1. First east -west road in Olmsted surveyed in 1815. 2. Follows an Indian trail from its beginning; the trail continues on to the next county. 3. Settled in stages representing a completely agricultural way of life to the semi -rural times when interurban transportation provided a link with the more populated area to the east and up to today when it represents modern suburban living. 4. Education and the desire for learning is represented by three schools and the remaining 153 volumes of the 1829 Oxcart library, first circulating library in the Western Reserve. There has been a school on Butternut Ridge Road since the 1850's. 5. Most of the pre -1935 homes have retained a significant amount of integrity to serve as an architectural guide to building styles and methods of the entire area. 6. The largest concentration of pre -1920 buildings in the present city of North Olmsted. 7. The existence of 13 historic building recognition plaqued homes with the potential for three additional pre -1900 plaqued homes. 8. The location of six homes still standing built prior to the Civil War. 9. The site of the historic Butternut Ridge Cemetery with the first burial in 1821. Today, those factors of historical significance continue to be valid. Changes from this list are minor. There are now two schools along Butternut Ridge Road instead of three (referenced in #4), the historic recognition plaque program (referenced in #7) has since been discontinued and one of the district's six antebellum homes (referenced in #8) was relocated to the Frostville Museum in 2016. Page 16