[5] Located approximately 65 miles (105 km) from Cleveland and Columbus via Interstate 71, it is part of Northeast Ohio region in the western foothills of the Allegheny Plateau.

The city was founded in 1808 on a fork of the Mohican River in a hilly region surrounded by fertile farmlands, and became a manufacturing center owing to its location with numerous railroad lines.

Dozens of manufacturing businesses operated in the city, producing goods like brass objects, doors, linseed oil, paper boxes, suspenders, and numerous other items.

[24] In 1927, the 9-story Leland Hotel was constructed downtown on the southwest corner of Park Avenue West and South Walnut Street at a cost of $556,000.

[25] Like many cities in the Rust Belt, the 1970s and 1980s brought urban blight, and losses of significant household name blue-collar manufacturing jobs.

[30] In December 2009, the city was placed on fiscal watch by the state auditor citing substantial deficit balances in structural operating general funds.

[40] Winters are cold and dry but typically bring a mix of rain, sleet, and snow with occasional heavy snowfall and icing.

[39] Snowfall is lighter than in the snowbelt areas to the northeast, but is still somewhat influenced by Lake Erie, located 38 miles (61 km) north of the city.

Severe Thunderstorms are not uncommon during the spring, summer, and fall bring with them the threat of large hail, damaging winds and in rare cases tornadoes.

[52][53] Westinghouse was the city's largest employer in the late 1950s, with over 8,000 employees, specializing in electric lighting, industrial heating and engineering, and home appliances.

Beginning with the steel Recession of the 1970s, the loss of jobs to overseas manufacturing, prolonged labor disputes, and deteriorating factory facilities all contributed to heavy industry leaving the area.

[63] The hospital is the city's primary provider of health care and serves as the major regional trauma center for north-central Ohio.

In addition, the Highway Safety Foundation produced other controversial education films including The Child Molester and Camera Surveillance (both 1964).

In 1962, The Highway Safety Foundation loaned camera equipment to the Mansfield Police Department to film the escapades of some of the city's homosexual men, who met for sexual relations in an underground public restroom on the north side of Central Park.

The resulting footage, combined with overdubbed audio commentary by officials of the Mansfield Police Department, was eventually compiled by HSF as the 1964 film Camera Surveillance.

Video artist William E. Jones of Massillon, Ohio, obtained copies of the original footage shot by the Mansfield Police Department.

Mansfield has also been used as a location for several big-budget Hollywood movies; among the most notable of these were The Shawshank Redemption,[67] Air Force One, and Tango & Cash, all of which featured the Ohio State Reformatory as a backdrop in pivotal scenes.

Escape Plan: The Extractors[68] The Mansfield/Mehock Relays, an annual two-day invitational track and field meet for high school boys and girls, held in April since 1927 (except for Second World War years), began on the initiative of Harry Mehock, track coach at host Mansfield Senior High School.

The supervising architect was F. F. Schnitzer, who was responsible for construction and was presented with a silver double inkwell by the governor of the state in a lavish ceremony to thank him for his services.

[76] Oak Hill Cottage, located amongst the ruins of Mansfield's once mighty industrial district, is a Gothic Revival brick house, built in 1847.

It was built by Carousel Works Inc.[94][95] Kingwood Center, a 47-acre (19 ha) estate and gardens, is the former home of Ohio Brass industrialist Charles Kelly King.

The Ohio State University has a regional campus at Mansfield,[115] North Central State College, a community college that shares the Mansfield Campus with OSU,[116] and Ashland University's Dwight Schar College of Nursing & Health Sciences, a newly constructed 46,000-square-foot academic and nursing building that opened for classes on August 20, 2012, is a private institution of higher education, located on the university's Balgreen Campus at Trimble Road and Marion Avenue in Mansfield, offering programs of study leading to the baccalaureate degree in nursing.

[117] The Mayor's Education Task Force was founded created in October 2008 in a response to the district's academic emergency status and low community support for the Mansfield City Public School system.

[120] The system has nine branches throughout Richland County including the main library in downtown Mansfield and locations in Bellville, Butler, Crestview, Lexington, Lucas, Madison Township, Ontario, and Plymouth.

This route was chosen in 1913 to become part of the historic Lincoln Highway which was the first road across America, connecting New York City to San Francisco.

The celebration's eastern transcontinental tour group visited Mansfield for an overnight stay on June 25 at the Holiday Inn on Park Avenue West, the highway's route through the city.

Ohio 309, which connects travelers from the major shopping area of the suburban city of Ontario and points west, and continues east into Mansfield before it merges into U.S. Route 30.

[125] According to city officials, trucks that happen to be over 12 ft (3.7 m) get stuck under the subway about five to six times a year on average due to not following advanced warning signage.

After the B&O branch line was abandoned, the 18.3-mile (29.5 km) section from Butler to North Lake Park in Mansfield was opened in 1995 as the recreational Richland B&O Trail.

A spur of the abandoned Erie Railroad leads west 5 miles (8.0 km) to Ontario to what used to be the General Motors metal stamping plant there.