Chardon, Ohio

City of Chardon, Ohio
—  City  —
Location of Chardon, Ohio
Coordinates: 41°34′45″N 81°12′16″W / 41.57917°N 81.20444°W / 41.57917; -81.20444Coordinates: 41°34′45″N 81°12′16″W / 41.57917°N 81.20444°W / 41.57917; -81.20444
Country	United States
State	Ohio
County	Geauga
Area
– Total	4.6 sq mi (11.9 km2)
– Land	4.6 sq mi (11.9 km2)
– Water	0.0 sq mi (0.0 km2)
Elevation[1]	1,299 ft (396 m)
Population (2010)
– Total	5,148
– Density	1,119.1/sq mi (432.6/km2)
Time zone	Eastern (EST) (UTC-5)
– Summer (DST)	EDT (UTC-4)
ZIP code	44024
Area code(s)	440
FIPS code	39-13554[2]
GNIS feature ID	1056789[1]
Website	http://www.chardon.cc/

The Geauga County Courthouse on Chardon Square, as viewed from the Ferris wheel during the Maple Festival.

Chardon is a city in Geauga County, Ohio, United States. The population was 5,148 at the 2010 Census. It is the county seat of Geauga County^[3].

History

Chardon is named after Peter Chardon Brooks, who donated land to build the historic Chardon Square.^[4]

Chardon fire

On July 24–25, 1868, a massive fire totally destroyed what is now known as Chardon Square. The fire originated in the Parlin Parkin's grocery store, and spread rapidly. By the time the fire was contained, the courthouse, post office, and many stores on the square were destroyed. Damage was estimated at around $120,000. Chardon Square was quickly rebuilt following the fire. A new courthouse, which still stands today, was completed in 1869. Many other buildings that were constructed after the fire also still exist today.^[4][5]

Culture

Chardon is known for its maple syrup industry. Celebration of the syrup season begins at Tapping Sunday in March, when the sap is at prime thawing temperature. The annual Geauga County Maple Festival^[6] is a four-day celebration that takes place on the Chardon Square the last weekend in April. The festival has been rescheduled numerous times because of snowstorms in April due to Chardon’s location in the “snow belt” and infamous large amount of snowfall every year. Chardon has an active performance art community including work done by the Geauga Lyric Theater Guild, housed in the renovated Geauga theater building, which used to house an old movie theater, and which has begun to show first-run movies again.^[7][8] Greater Chardon features a large number of golf courses. Chardon Lakes Golf Course is located right in the heart of Chardon, two minutes from the Chardon square. This is a beautiful, challenging course that is open to the public. Sand Ridge Golf Club in nearby Munson Township is also an excellent golf course. Chardon has an abundance of park space. Due largely to the area's wide variety of weather conditions, citizens in the area can enjoy a wide variety of hobbies throughout the year.

Notable present and former residents

Carl Ricco (30), a type designer, artist and musician grew up in Chardon, and attended Chardon High School.

Geography and climate

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, Chardon has a total area of 4.6 square miles (12 km²), of which, 4.6 square miles (12 km²) of it is land and 0.22% is water.

Climate

With an average annual snowfall of 106 inches (269 cm),^[9][10] Chardon is notable for being the snowiest city in Ohio.^[11] This is mainly due to its location on a 730 foot (220 m) ridge approximately 10 miles (16 km) inland from Lake Erie, creating the perfect conditions for Orographic lift and its associated heavy snowfall when winter winds blow across the lake.

In 1996, from November 9 through November 13, a storm dropped over 70 inches of lake-effect snow in the city over a period of six days.^[12][13] Governor George Voinovich declared a state of emergency as a result, and the Ohio National Guard was brought in to assist with the cleanup.^[14]

Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Avg high °F	31.6	34.6	44.3	55.9	67.6	76.2	80	78.6	71.8	60.4	47.9	36.7	57.1
Avg low temperature °F	14.3	15.1	23.9	33.6	44	53.1	57.5	56.1	49.2	39	31.5	21.5	36.6
Rainfall in.	3.28	2.71	3.4	3.84	4.17	4.53	3.94	4.62	4.41	3.84	4.3	4.29	47.33
Snowfall in.	28.29	20.11	16.49	4.20	0.12	0	0	0	0.01	1.18	9.95	27.04	107.39
Source: Chardon City Data

Demographics

Historical populations
Census	Pop.		%±
1970	3,991		—
1980	4,434		11.1%
1990	4,446		0.3%
2000	5,156		16.0%
2010	5,148		−0.2%

As of the census^[15] of 2010, there were 5,148 people, 2,285 households, and 1,331 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,119.1 people per square mile (432.6/km²). There were 2,285 occupied housing units at an average density of 496.7 per square mile (192/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 96.9% White, 0.8% African American, 0.2% Native American, 0.6% Asian, 0.0% Pacific Islander, 0.2% from other races, and 1.3% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.5% of the population.

There were 2,285 households, of which 27.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 42.1% were married couples living together, 12.2% had a female householder with no husband present, 3.9% had a male householder with no wife present, and 41.8% were non-families. 37.4% of all households were made up of individuals, 3.2% had a male 65 years of age or older living alone, and 12.6% had a female living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.21 and the average family size was 2.94.

In the city, the population was spread out with 23.5% under the age of 18, 7.40% from 18 to 24, 23.9% from 25 to 44, 26.5% from 45 to 64, and 17.70% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 41.1 years. For every 100 females there were 82.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 77.6 males.

For the 2000 census, the median income for a household in the city was $46,074, and the median income for a family was $57,845. Males had a median income of $44,071 versus $23,750 for females. The per capita income for the city was $21,845. About 1.3% of families and 3.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 0.6% of those under age 18 and 7.8% of those age 65 or over.

Notable residents

• Andrew Brown, MLB pitcher for the Oakland Athletics
• Mel Harder, pitcher for the Cleveland Indians
• Matt Hutter, NASCAR driver
• Halbert Eleazer Paine, U.S. Representative from Wisconsin
• Seth Ledyard Phelps, naval officer, politician and diplomat
• Joseph Smith, Jr., convicted of operating an illegal bank in a trial that began on March 24, 1837 in Chardon.
• Lee Kemp, two-time Ohio state wrestling champion, National junior freestyle wrestling champion, three-time NCAA division 1 champion, three- time world champion, four-time world cup champion, seven-time national champion, beat the legend Dan Gable, qualified for the 1980 Olympics, but could not compete due to the U.S. boycott of the Olympics, coached the 2008 U.S. freestyle wrestling team at the Olympics in Beijing, China.^[16]
• Midnight Syndicate, gothic music group
• Margaret Bobonich, the 13th-place finisher on Survivor: Guatemala
• Joe Jurevicius, wide receiver for the Cleveland Browns, hails from adjacent Chardon Township.^[17]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "US Board on Geographic Names". United States Geological Survey. 2007-10-25. http://geonames.usgs.gov. Retrieved 2008-01-31. 
2. ^ "American FactFinder". United States Census Bureau. http://factfinder.census.gov. Retrieved 2008-01-31. 
3. ^ "Find a County". National Association of Counties. http://www.naco.org/Counties/Pages/FindACounty.aspx. Retrieved 2011-06-07. 
4. ^ ^{a b} City of Chardon - History.
5. ^ Terrible Conflagration.; The Entire Business Portion of Chardon, Ohio, in Ashes-Loss Over $100,000. New York Times, August 1, 1868.
6. ^ Geauga County Maple Festival official site
7. ^ "Guild restores murals that set the tone for Chardon's 1939, art deco cinema", The Plain Dealer, February 5, 2001.
8. ^ Movies for 4 - Geauga Lyric Theater Guild website.
9. ^ Schmidlin, Thomas W. (September 1989). "Climatic Summary of Snowfall and Snow Depth in the Ohio Snowbelt at Chardon". The Ohio Journal of Science 89 (4): 101–108. http://hdl.handle.net/1811/23329. Retrieved 2006-10-05. 
10. ^ City of Chardon - Snowfall
11. ^ Chardon ranks as one of the snowiest cities
12. ^ Data and Analyses, November 9-14, 1996 in the Great Lakes - WW2010 Archives, University of Illinois.
13. ^ National Agricultural Summary, November 11-17, 1996 - National Agricultural Statistics Service, United States Department of Agriculture.
14. ^ Albrecht, Brian E (1996-11-17). "So much, so soon; Snowfall will have place among stories of survival in Cleveland weatherlore". The Plain Dealer. http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/InfoWeb?p_action=doc&p_topdoc=1&p_docnum=1&p_sort=YMD_date:D&p_product=NewsBank&p_text_direct-0=document_id=(%200F808D814FE36FF4%20)&p_docid=0F808D814FE36FF4&p_theme=aggregated5&p_queryname=0F808D814FE36FF4&f_openurl=yes&p_nbid=M53C52ROMTIwNDY4MzQ3Ni44NDA4MjU6MToxMjoxOTguMzAuMjI4LjA&&p_multi=CPDB. Retrieved 2008-03-05. 
15. ^ "American Factfinder". Chardon City, Ohio. U.S. Census Bureau. http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=DEC_10_DP_DPDP1&prodType=table. Retrieved 2011-09-10. 
16. ^ Lee Kemp's Bio
17. ^ Warsinskey, Tim (1992-12-16). "Ohio State Not Among Jurevicius' Final Five". The Plain Dealer. http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/InfoWeb?p_action=doc&p_topdoc=1&p_docnum=1&p_sort=YMD_date:D&p_product=NewsBank&p_text_direct-0=document_id=(%200F803ED06086B988%20)&p_docid=0F803ED06086B988&p_theme=aggregated5&p_queryname=0F803ED06086B988&f_openurl=yes&p_nbid=T53E4BCIMTIzNDMwMDY3NC43NzMyMzQ6MToxMjoxOTguMzAuMjI4LjA&&p_multi=CPDB. Retrieved 2009-02-10. 

External links

• Official homepage of the City of Chardon
• Chardon Local Schools
• Chardon Fire Department