Mantua Center's Village Green reflects the New England heritage of the community's early settlers and stood at the center of the town's social and commercial life on land donated by Hezekiah Nooney Sr. Around the green were a furniture and cabinet maker's shop, harness shop, blacksmith shop, post office, tannery, ashery, dry goods store, and distillery. The Methodist Episcopal Church, now the Mantua Civic Center, stands at the southwest corner, and Eastlawn cemetery, with a burial dating to 1816, lies along the south border as the resting place of soldiers from several wars, including the American Revolution, and many other early citizens; in 1835 Horace Sizer built the stone wall around the cemetery beside Mantua Center Road. On the northeast corner, the 1840 Town Hall with its octagonal dome was later adapted for school use, replacing an 1861 one-room schoolhouse on Mantua Center Road that now serves as a private residence, and after later use as a Grange Hall it became the Township Hall and home of the Mantua Historical Society. By 1907, growing school enrollment led to the construction of two "12-holer" outhouses, and the boys' outhouse survives behind the building. On the southeast corner stands Mantua Center Christian Church, built in 1840 in a distinctive New England style with a prominent steeple and recognized as Ohio's oldest Disciples of Christ church; James A. Garfield frequently preached there between 1855 and 1860 while serving as president of nearby Hiram College, formerly Hiram Eclectic Institute.