Abandoned Towns

Living community · Perry County, Ohio

Rendville

An 1879 coal town on Sunday Creek where Ohio elected its first Black mayor, now the smallest village in the state.

39°37′20″N 82°05′21″W
Living village

Rendville is a living village of 28 people (2020 census) with its own mayor and council, not a ghost town. It is the smallest incorporated community in Ohio, and an Ohio State University field school in March 2024 found the Historic Town Hall still standing on Main Street.

The label

Why Rendville is called a ghost town

Rendville is listed in a long-running ghost town directory, which notes "not a lot" of remains and says most of those who stayed after the post office closed moved to larger cities. The numbers explain the label: the census counted 859 people in 1890 and 28 in 2020, and the Ohio State field school of March 2024 found nearly every building in a 1950s aerial photo of the town gone. Rendville is not on Wikipedia's list of ghost towns in Ohio, and Wikipedia describes it as a village and an old mining town.

History

Rendville then

Chicago industrialist William P. Rend founded Rendville in 1879 as a coal mining town on Sunday Creek, and a post office opened the same year. One history says Rend, a Civil War veteran, built a store, a hotel, saloons and churches for his miners and that the town grew to about 2,500; the census peak was 859, in 1890.

Rendville drew Black miners, and the state marker at the Town Hall tells how they broke the color barrier there. Dr. Isaiah Tuppins, the first African American to receive a medical degree in Ohio, was elected mayor in 1888, the first African American mayor in the state. Richard L. Davis, who came in 1882 and was active in the Knights of Labor, helped found the United Mine Workers of America in 1890 and sat on its national executive board. Adam Clayton Powell Sr., who arrived in 1884, had his spiritual awakening at the Rendville Baptist Church and later led the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. Roberta Preston became Ohio's first African American woman postmaster in 1963, and Sophia Mitchell its first African American woman mayor in 1969.

The boom was short. Businesses and mines closed in the near collapse of 1885, and after the Depression the population kept falling, to 82 in 1970. The post office closed in 1982 by Wikipedia's account, 1980 by the directory's. Residents told the 2024 field school that the straightening of OH-13 cut the village off.

1879. William P. Rend founds Rendville as a coal mining town; the post office opens.

1880. The census counts 349 people.

1882. Richard L. Davis comes to Rendville.

1884. Adam Clayton Powell Sr. arrives.

1885. Mines and businesses close in the near collapse of the local economy.

1888. Dr. Isaiah Tuppins is elected mayor, the first African American mayor in Ohio.

1890. Davis helps found the United Mine Workers of America. The census counts 859, Rendville's highest.

1930. The census counts 331.

1963. Roberta Preston becomes Ohio's first African American woman postmaster.

1969. Sophia Mitchell is elected mayor, Ohio's first African American woman mayor.

1970. The census counts 82.

1980 or 1982. The post office closes; sources give both years.

2018. A marker for Richard L. Davis is unveiled at the Emancipation Day celebration on September 22.

2020. The census counts 28, the smallest incorporated community in Ohio.

2024. An Ohio State University field school (March 10 to 16) works with the village on its history and cemetery.

Today

What is there now

The Village Hall on Main Street with the state marker at right, December 2016
The Village Hall on Main Street with the state marker at right, December 2016 · Photo: Nyttend, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

Rendville is a handful of streets on the east side of Sunday Creek, off OH-13. The Historic Town Hall, a white two-story frame building with a bell cupola and an outside stair, stands on Main Street just south of Valley Street, with the state marker "Rendville, Breaking the Color Barrier" at 6520 Main Street. A video posted in August 2021 shows a second marker, for Richard L. Davis, beside the Town Hall, and the former church at 6541 Main Street that now holds Rendville Artworks. The March 2024 field school also visited the "Little White House" on Main Street, freshly painted by Ohio University student volunteers, and the Rendville or Scotch Hill cemetery, which has unmarked graves and new burials in recent years. The Rendville Historic Preservation Society keeps the village's history, and the village held an Emancipation Day celebration in September 2018.

Homes are private: see the village from its public streets. The 1911 New Lexington sheet below shows Rendville filling the valley floor, with the railroad along Sunday Creek and the mining camp of Congo over the hill to the west. On the 1961 Corning sheet the village is a few streets with a strip mine across the creek and cemeteries on the hills to the southeast.

Video

A stop at the roadside marker

A local YouTuber pulls in at the historical marker sign and drives Rendville's short main street on a green summer day. The video shows the white frame town hall with its outside stair, the "Breaking the Color Barrier" marker and a second marker for Richard L. Davis beside it, and the former church that now holds an art studio, closed that day. Old photographs, portraits and newspaper clippings are cut in between. The narration's history is the creator's own. It says Tuppins moved to Rendville in 1884 and that Davis died young of pneumonia, details our sources don't give, and it quotes the 2010 census of 36.

Play “Rendville Ohio” from YouTube
“Rendville Ohio”, by PerSueTheDream on YouTube. The player loads from YouTube when you press play.

Historic maps

Rendville on USGS maps, 1911–1984

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the map point. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

USGS topographic map around Rendville, 1911
New Lexington sheet, 1911, 1:62,500 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

New Lexington, the Perry County seat, is the closest town with full services. OH-13 runs south from there down the Sunday Creek valley to Rendville. From Columbus, take I-70 east to OH-13 and follow it south through Somerset and New Lexington. The routes were computed from OpenStreetMap.

USGS topographic map from New Lexington south to Rendville, with the routes drawn on it

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL). Times assume dry roads.

From downtown New Lexington11.5 miabout 18 min
  1. From downtown New Lexington, take West Brown Street to South Main Street (SR 13 and SR 37).0.2 mi
  2. Follow Main Street, which becomes Mill Street, south out of town.3.6 mi
  3. Turn right on Township Highway 312.3.9 mi
  4. Turn left on SR 13 (Jefferson Street).3.5 mi
  5. Turn left on Valley Street into Rendville.0.2 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Road and visiting notes

  • Homes in Rendville are private. See the village from the public streets.

Photos

Rendville in photos

Questions

Common questions

Is Rendville, Ohio a ghost town?

No. Rendville is an incorporated village of 28 people (2020 census), the smallest in Ohio. It has lost most of its buildings since its coal boom, which is why some lists call it a ghost town.

What is there to see in Rendville?

The white frame Town Hall on Main Street with the state marker "Rendville, Breaking the Color Barrier", a second marker for labor leader Richard L. Davis (2018), the former church at 6541 Main Street and the Rendville or Scotch Hill cemetery. Homes are private.

Why is Rendville famous?

In 1888 it elected Dr. Isaiah Tuppins, the first African American mayor in Ohio, and in 1969 Sophia Mitchell, the state's first African American woman mayor. Richard L. Davis of Rendville helped found the United Mine Workers of America in 1890.

Nearby

Ghost towns and sites near Rendville

Straight-line distance to other mapped sites in our Ohio index.

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. Ohio Historical Society and Sunday Creek Associates/Little City of Black Diamonds Council, marker 11-64, "Rendville, Breaking the Color Barrier", Remarkable Ohio, read October 2026: Rend and the 1879 founding, Tuppins, Davis (1882, Knights of Labor, UMWA 1890), Powell (1884), Preston (1963), Mitchell (1969), the marker at the Town Hall, 6520 Main Street.
  2. Wikipedia, "Rendville, Ohio", retrieved October 2026: census populations 1880 to 2020, smallest incorporated community, post office 1879 to 1982, Sunday Creek, coordinates.
  3. Wikipedia, "List of ghost towns in Ohio", read October 29, 2026: Rendville is not listed.
  4. Ghosttowns.com, "Rendville": the ghost town listing; Rend's Civil War service, store, hotel, saloons and churches, about 2,500 people, the 1885 slump, decline after the Depression, the post office closing in 1980.
  5. Ohio State University, "Rendville: Place Memories", on a field school of March 10 to 16, 2024: the Historic Town Hall, the Little White House, lost buildings, the cemetery, the OH-13 rerouting, the Rendville Historic Preservation Society.
  6. WOUB, "PHOTOS: 2018 Rendville Emancipation Day Celebration", September 24, 2018: the Davis marker unveiled on September 22, 2018.
  7. PerSueTheDream, "Rendville Ohio", YouTube, posted August 15, 2021: the video on this page; the town hall, the two markers and the former church on Main Street.
  8. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026.

Photo and map credits