Leetonia, OH

Leetonia was built around coal, iron, and railroads. Irish businessman William Lee began buying land and mineral rights in the 1860s, and the Leetonia Iron and Coal Company laid out a company town with mines, a blast furnace, and a row of beehive coke ovens. By 1869 the village had grown to roughly 1,800 people and incorporated; later companies kept the furnaces running until the coke works closed in 1930. The remaining ovens now sit in a village park, where trails and preservation work trace the industrial site. Leetonia is Columbiana County's old furnace town, with a compact downtown and a huge piece of its working past still standing.