Discreet Biohazard Cleanup Near Downtown Crestline, OH

Crestline is a village in Crawford County (extending slightly into Richland County), Ohio, that was founded in 1851 and platted in 1852 as a railroad station town.

Crestline owes its existence to the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad - the 'Bee Line' - which built a station halfway between Shelby and Galion around 1850 because no town existed on that stretch of line.

Crestline got its name because early settlers believed the site was the highest point in Ohio and sat on the state's watershed, where streams to the north flow to Lake Erie and streams to the south flow to the Ohio River - the town was not actually on the watershed line, but the name stuck.

Crestline had 4,525 residents at the 2020 census, making it the third-largest municipality in Crawford County.

In the 2010 census, Crestline's 4,630 residents lived in 1,914 households, and the village sits at about 1,130 feet above sea level along the Sandusky River near its headwaters.

During its heyday, Crestline was a major division point for the Pennsylvania Railroad's Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway, where locomotives and crews were changed for the flat run to Chicago.

Crestline's Pennsylvania Railroad roundhouse was decommissioned in 1968 after the Penn Central merger, and demolition of the historic structure began in 2007 after years of neglect.

Crestline is still a working railroad town today - the village describes itself as a division point with both north-south and east-west main lines, served by CSX, Norfolk Southern, and the Chicago, Fort Wayne and Eastern Railroad.

Children in Crestline attend the Crestline Exempted Village School District, and the village is also home to St. Joseph, a Catholic elementary school serving grades K-8.

Crestline operates under a mayor-council form of government, and because its population is under 5,000 it remains a village under Ohio law rather than a city.