POMEROY — The Ohio Historic Site Preservation Advisory Board is meeting today at the State Library of Ohio in Columbus, to review Ohio nominations to the National Register of Historic Places, one of which involves increasing the boundary of the Buffington Island Battlefield at Portland.

The four acres in the Buffington Island Memorial Park area have been listed on the National Registry since 1971. However, since Ohio’s only Civil War battle took place over 1200 acres, it has been recommended that the current listing be expanded to include the entire area where the battle was fought. It is being considered for its potential to yield archaeological information important to understanding the battle.

A 2009 study prepared for the Ohio Historical Society and the American Battlefield Protection Program to determine the extent of the battlefield found that the four acres currently listed on the National Register is less than one percent of the area on which the battle took place and recommended nominating more of the 1863 battlefield to the National Register.

If the area listed on the National Register is expanded as proposed, it would encompass 1,578 acres roughly bounded by the east bank of the Ohio River, Dry Run Creek, a ridgeline to the west and Laucks Run. Several local meetings have been held in Meigs County for imput from residents living in the area being considered for inclusion in the National Registry.

Other nominations being considered today for National Registry are:

Ashland / Ashland County: Downtown Ashland Historic District, a commercial, governmental and educational center built from the 1850s through the early 1960s, a section of 60 historic buildings

Berea / Cuyahoga County: Baldwin-Wallace College North Campus Historic District, for 14 campus buildings dating from 1891 to 1966, many built using locally-quarried Berea sandstone in architectural styles popular at the time they were constructed.

Cleveland / Cuyahoga County: East Ohio Building, 1717 E. 9th St. Completed in 1959 the 21-story glass curtain wall skyscraper was home of the East Ohio Gas Company, founded by John D. Rockefeller.

Cleveland / Cuyahoga County: Globe Machine and Stamping Co., built in 1912 and 1918, for its local labor history and progressive attitudes, and solving fundamental differences between capital and labor in the early 1900s.

Cleveland / Cuyahoga County: Herold Building, 310 Prospect Ave. as an example of small-scale commercial buildings using glass panels to modernize older commercial buildings in the 1930s and 1940s.

Cleveland / Cuyahoga County: Kendel Building, 210 Prospect Ave. for it Neoclassical-style details.

Cleveland / Cuyahoga County: Record Rendezvous, for its association with the store and its founder, Leo Mintz. Mintz who sold rock and roll records in the early 1950s, when the music was in its infancy.

Cleveland / Cuyahoga County: West 25th St.-Detroit Ave. Historic District, which reflects the changing urban landscape from the 1830s to 1950s and the impact of major transportation advances including construction of the Superior Viaduct in 1878 and opening of the Detroit-Superior High Level Bridge in 1917.

Dayton / Montgomery County: Antioch Temple, for its local historic and architectural significance.

University Heights / Cuyahoga County: John Carroll University North Quad Historic District for its local significance in the areas of community planning and education.

Washington Court House / Fayette County: Recognized for its local historic and architectural significance in a 1913 building of classic Greek and Roman architecture, structure and its broad trends in public education.

If the board finds that the proposed nominations appear to meet the criteria for listing on the National Register, it will recommend to Ohio’s State Historic Preservation Officer, Burt Logan, that they be forwarded to the Keeper of the National Register of Historic Places for her consideration. The board meets three times each year to consider proposed Ohio nominations to the National Register. It includes buildings, sites, structures, objects and historic districts of national, state and local importance.

“Eligibility is contingent on the basis of a significant contribution to the broad patterns of history, be associated with the lives of people significant in our past, or - embody the distinctive characteristics of a type, period or method of construction, or represent the work of a master, or possess high artistic values or represent a significant, distinguishable entity whose components may lack individual distinction (e.g. a historic district), or - have yielded, or be likely to yield, information important in prehistory or history,” according to the release.

National Register listing often raises community awareness of a property. However, listing does not obligate owners to repair or improve their properties and does not prevent them from remodeling, altering, selling, or even demolishing them if they choose to do so. Owners or long-term tenants who rehabilitate income-producing properties listed on the National Register can qualify for a 20 percent federal income tax credit as long as the work they do follows guidelines regarding alteration of historic buildings. A similar 25 percent state income tax credit is also offered through the Ohio Department of Development’s Office of Redevelopment.