St. Clairsville: Cycling, Nature and History

If you’re looking for a hotel in St. Clairsville, start by considering what you want your stay to focus on: cycling, nature, recreation in the park, or local history. The National Road Bikeway is the main attraction for cycling, while the Newlin Falls Nature Trail and Memorial Park offer different outdoor activities. Historic sites and the Belmont County Heritage Museum add local and county history to the mix. This lets you distinguish the destinations by their individual character rather than treating them as a single route.

Cycling on the National Road Bikeway

The National Road Bikeway in St. Clairsville is the only rail-trail in Ohio with a tunnel. The tunnel is 532 feet long and 40 feet high. Beyond it, the bikeway includes three miles of paved trail and is also connected to a one-mile extended bike lane. This gives you different points of reference: the tunnel as a standalone structure, and the figures for the trail and its connection.

Nature trails and recreation in Memorial Park

The Newlin Falls Nature Trail connects the northeast corner of Memorial Park with a heavily wooded, undeveloped property. It features two waterfalls and a bridge over a winding stream. Unlike the tunnel-centered bikeway, this trail focuses on woodland and water. The two routes are distinguished by their features: one by waterfalls, a stream, and a bridge; the other by a tunnel and sections of bike trail.

Memorial Park in St. Clairsville offers pavilions, an outdoor swimming pool, playgrounds, and a hiking trail. Visitors can play basketball, baseball, pickleball, tennis, and disc golf; they can bring their own equipment for these activities. Along with hiking, the park offers a range of sports, playgrounds, and an outdoor pool. This gives it a different focus from the two trails: the park brings together several recreational options.

Historic sites and regional history

The St. Clairsville Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. The Belmont County Heritage Museum is located in the St. Clairsville Downtown National Historic District. The tour takes visitors through eight rooms and explores the history of Belmont County’s communities. The museum brings together two scales: its location is in a historic district of St. Clairsville, while the tour focuses on the county’s communities. This distinction helps put the historic site and the scope of the tour in context.

The historic Clarendon Hotel was built in 1890 in St. Clairsville’s Downtown Historic District and is associated with the Historic National Road. Another historic reference point is the start of construction on the road: on July 4, 1825, construction of the National Road in Ohio began near the Belmont County Courthouse in St. Clairsville. The two dates mark different points in time: 1890 is the hotel’s construction year, while 1825 marks the start of road construction.

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