PAINESVILLE

city, seat (1840) of Lake county, northeastern Ohio, U.S., near the mouth of the Grand River and Lake Erie, 30 miles (48 km) northeast of Cleveland. The site, first settled permanently by Gen. Edward Paine with a party of 66, was laid out around 1805; it was known variously as The Opening, Oak Openings, and Champion (for Henry Champion, original owner of the plot). In 1816 the community was renamed to honour Paine and was incorporated as a village in 1832. Jonathan Goldsmith, an architect of the Western Reserve period, built many elegant homes there in the 1820s, some of which survive. The Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula (now Penn Central) Railroad came through in 1853, and the nursery business, now extensive, began in 1854. Lake Erie College was founded in 1856. The village remained mainly residential and became a city in 1902. Since 1940 it has developed industrially as part of Lake Erie's chemical shore. Pop. (1990) 15,769; (1994 est.) 16,280.