Painesville, Ohio

Painesville was settled by Americans shortly after the Revolutionary War. It was still considered part of the Connecticut Western Reserve. General Edward Paine (1746–1841), who had served as a captain in the Connecticut militia during the war, and John Walworth arrived in 1800 with a party of sixty-six settlers, among the first in the Western Reserve. General Paine later represented the region in the territorial legislature of the Northwest Territory.

In 1800 the Western Reserve became Trumbull County and at the first Court of Quarter Sessions, the county was divided into eight townships. The smallest of these townships was named Painesville, for General Paine, and encompassed what later became the townships of Perry, Leroy, Hambden, Concord, Chardon, Mentor, and Kirtland. The township government was organized in 1802. The post office in Painesville was opened in 1803 with John Walworth as postmaster.

In what was to become the commercial center of the township was a settlement called Oak Openings, its name being descriptive of the scrub oaks and sandy soil. It was here in 1805 that Gen. Henry Champion laid out a village plat and called it Champion, a name that it carried only until incorporation in 1832, when the name "Painesville" was chosen in honor of General Paine. Two of his descendants, Eleazer A. Paine and Halbert E. Paine, later served as Union Army generals during the American Civil War.

Statue of General Edward Paine in Painesville, Ohio

In 1840 Lake County was created from portions of Geauga and Cuyahoga Counties, and Painesville was made the county seat and a courthouse erected. In 1852, the community of Painesville became a village, and in 1902 the village attained city status.

Painesville is located at 41°43′22″N 81°14′59″W (41.722793, -81.249597).[8]

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 7.02 square miles (18.18 km²), of which 6.29 square miles (16.29 km²) is land and 0.73 square miles (1.89 km²) is water.[1]

Painesville and Concord townships, along with the village of Fairport Harbor and the city of Mentor, are adjacent to Painesville.

Painesville's Hispanic population increased elevenfold between 1990 and 2010. New residents were primarily immigrants from León, Guanajuato, the ninth-largest metropolitan region in Mexico. They had settled in Painesville after finding work in its plant nurseries.[12]

Public education in the city of Painesville is provided by the Painesville City Schools.

The City of Painesville is also home to Lake Erie College, which is well known around the world for equine studies. The former Andrews Osborne Academy's Painesville campus became part of Lake Erie College in 2008.[13]

The largest employers are the local and county hospital systems, county government, and the public school systems.[14]

Other notable employers include a number of high-tech manufacturing companies:

Avery Dennison – headquartered in Glendale, CA, the company's Painesville facility specializes in label making, specialty paper, vinyl film casting, as well as other products.[15]

Mar-Bal Corp. – specializes in thermoplastics manufacturing, injection molding, and finishing. It's headquarters and R&D department are located in Chagrin Falls; its facility Painesville employs about 200 people.[16] China and a sales office in Shanghai.[17] It was named on the Inc. magazine's fastest growing companies in 2013.[18]

Lubrizol – a specialty chemical and petrochemical company wholly owned by Berkshire Hathaway since 2011. Painesville plant employs 350 and over 1200 employees in nearby Wycliffe, OH (its corporate headquarters) and 4,700 nation wide.[19] Among its product is the gelling agent used to make hand sanitizer.[19]

AeroControlex – manufacturer of control valves, pumps and control assemblies for industries including aerospace, marine, and nuclear power generation. It is owned by TransDigm Group. The Painesville facility is the Aero Fluid Products division.[20]

Guyer Precision, Inc. – contract manufacturer of high-precision computer numerical control machined parts for automotive, aerospace, and other industries.[21][22]

Eckart America -- owned by German-based chemical company Altana, producing patented[23] pigments for paints and coatings, graphic arts, pyrotechnical and other industries.[24]. The Painesville facility is Eckart’s Ink Manufacturing and Graphic Arts Center.[25]

Meritec - high‐performance electrical and electronic interconnect embedded systems and connectors for aerospace, defense, automotive, and medical device industries.[26]

The area in and around the City of Painesville was used as the location for the filming of the 1964 feature film One Potato, Two Potato.[27] The film, a 1964 Cannes Film Festival[28] selection, provides a glimpse of that era in the city's downtown, including its central park and surrounding architecture. The Lake County Courthouse and Painesville City Hall remain today. The Parmly Hotel, seen in the opening credits, and occasionally throughout the film is gone, replaced by a shopping plaza and office complex.

• John S. Casement - Civil War General
• Daniel Carter Beard - Boy Scouts of America co-founder
• Joe Dolce - singer-songwriter and poet
• Harlan Ellison - author
• Larry Foust - NBA player
• Emma Sheridan Fry, actor playwright
• Shell Kepler - actor
• George Trumbull Ladd - psychologist
• Eschines P. Matthews - Wisconsin State Assemblyman
• Danny Nardico - boxer
• Tom Orosz - NFL player
• Byron Paine - Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice
• Paul Ryczek - NFL player
• Jason Short - NFL player
• Don Shula - NFL player, coach
• Charles W. Stage - Ohio state representative, baseball umpire

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Painesville, Ohio.

• City website
• Painesville Chamber of Commerce
• Downtown Painesville Organization