Two Kent Students Work to Create Architectural History map of Ravenna

A new project was announced at Ravenna’s City Council meeting held on Monday enlisted the help of Two Kent State University students. The two Kent architecture students, Kaylan Pataky and Nancy Rhoades were tasked with helping to photograph research, and record all officially documented historic landmarks in Ravenna

 

The project simply titled Ravenna Historic Structures was brought in front of the committee for discussion by Todd Peetz, the director of the Regional Planning Commission of Portage County Monday during a Ravenna City Council Meeting. Ravenna Historic Structures is a website that utilizes the ArcGIS  Story Maps program.

 

This program enables users to create maps that can share information through images text or videos. His goal was simply to inform the committee about the project which had been in development for over a year. The project aimed to create driveable and walkable tours of the historic locations in Ravenna. It also created a way for individuals to view the locations online with a great deal of information. 

 

The two Kent students were brought on as interns by the Regional Planning Commission shortly after a grant was given to multiple Ravenna organizations including Ravenna schools to fund community history projects around the city. The Jack W. Schafer trust fund was handed out in 2021 shortly after Schafer’s passing. 

This project was unveiled by Todd Peetz, the director of the Regional Planning Commission of Portage County Monday during a Ravenna City Council Meeting.

 

Peetz said that they have plans to add more interactable features into the website as a way to engage viewers. 

 

“We can embed oral history so people can talk about ‘my grandfather lived here, my grandmother lived here. This is what they did then, this is what we do now.’ Kind of this. You can do an oral history and embed that or you can do realtor-type photos if they’re interested in doing that. Because you can invent that so people can see the inside of the building as well as the outside, because some people say, I really would like to go in that building. And you can, we can. But so far nobody’s taken us up on that option”

 

The web page consists of multiple different maps. One consists of all the historic districts and locations together. The other consists of different architectural styles such as greek revival, colonial revival and several others. 

 

Peetz said that the website is still planning to be updated and other structures, he believes there are still several structures to be documented in Ravenna.

 

“So there’s 200 total in the city and the township that we’ve listed. That doesn’t mean that’s all there is.  The last time we’ve done a major historical inventory was done with back in 86. So a lot of extra age has occurred and I’m getting more houses to be eligible to be listed on the Ohio historic inventory.”

 

Peetz also ended the session by adding that he was planning to meet with the Kent City Council later this month to introduce them to the idea and perhaps start something similar here in Kent as well.