Map of Clay Center village, Ohio

Clay Center is a village in Ottawa County, Ohio, United States. The population was 276 at the 2010 census.

Clay Center village overview:
Name:	Clay Center village
LSAD Code:	47
LSAD Description:	village (suffix)
State:	Ohio
County:	Ottawa County
Elevation:	610 ft (186 m)
Total Area:	1.01 sq mi (2.62 km²)
Land Area:	1.01 sq mi (2.62 km²)
Water Area:	0.00 sq mi (0.00 km²)
Total Population:	262
Population Density:	258.64/sq mi (99.82/km²)
ZIP code:	43408
Area code:	419
FIPS code:	3915588
GNISfeature ID:	1048603

Online Interactive Map

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Clay Center online map. Source: Basemap layers from Google Map, Open Street Map (OSM), Arcgisonline, Wmflabs. Boundary Data from Database of Global Administrative Areas.

Clay Center location map. Where is Clay Center village?

Clay Center location on the U.S. Map. Where is Clay Center village. — Clay Center location on the U.S. Map.

Clay Center location on the Ohio map. Where is Clay Center village. — Location of Clay Center in Ohio.

History

Clay Center derives its name from originally being the center of a larger Clay Township. When Ottawa County was founded in 1840, Allen Township did not exist, but was the northern half of a larger Clay Township. When the Townships split in 1888, Clay Center became a part of Allen Township.

The town was founded by William Clark, a land speculator who believed a town in the center of the large township would be more likely to grow than the southern population center, Genoa. In 1883 Clay Township and Genoa discussed building a new Town Hall, and it was decided that Clay Township would help construct the building in downtown Genoa, instead of the geographic center in Clay Center. Local tradition states that this was the reason for Clay Township splitting in two a few years later. This was not the case when other public investments were made in the community. When Clay-Genoa schools merged with the Allen township school district in the 1950s to form the Genoa Area Local School District, the new high school was built just outside of Clay Center, and when the Clay-Genoa and Allen Township fire departments merged in 1999, a new Allen-Clay Joint Fire District headquarters was soon built just outside of Clay Center.