McArthur, OH

McArthur is the Vinton County seat in southeastern Ohio, a village laid out in 1815 and named for Duncan McArthur, the War of 1812 general. The 2020 census counted 1,783 residents. U.S. 50 and Ohio 93 meet at town, so McArthur has always had a county-road role alongside its courthouse and village streets. The McArthur Hotel, built in 1839, is the oldest surviving building and has long been a gathering place for restaurants, retail, newspapers, and other businesses. The Herbert Wescoat Memorial Library and Vinton County schools give the village a steady civic center. McArthur is in a rebuilding chapter.

The historic hotel suffered major fire damage in 2025, and 2026 cleanup and brownfield work are aimed at stabilizing the building for a future renovation with lodging, restaurant, meeting, and visitor-center uses. Around that project, the everyday village work continues: volunteer fire and emergency services, school schedules, library programs, county offices, and the traffic moving between Chillicothe and the Vinton County countryside. McArthur is not a place whose history sits behind glass. The county-seat buildings, hotel, school, and highway are all still part of the town’s working scene, with the hotel’s next life likely to shape downtown for years.