A Midwest 'City Of Murals' Is A Historic Town Famous For Its Controversial Ohio Valley-Style Pizza

Welcome to Steubenville, Ohio, a Midwestern town where art, history, and a touch of culinary controversy collide. This historic Ohio River community is best known as the "City of Murals," with more than 25 large-scale artworks adorning its downtown buildings, but it holds another, more debated claim to fame: The invention of the divisive Ohio Valley-style pizza. For visitors, this former steel and coal town offers plenty to see, taste, and do in its colorful historic center. 

Before it was known for pizza and murals, Steubenville played a significant role in American history. Founded in 1797 on the banks of the Ohio River, the city was named for Fort Steuben, an outpost built a decade earlier to protect surveyors mapping the Northwest Territory. Although the fort was short-lived, the town endured, and even hosted a brief stop by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on their way to one of the best destinations in the Pacific Northwest. Steubenville became an industrial powerhouse from the late 19th through the mid-20th century as part of a 30-mile stretch of steel mills along the Ohio River.

The city has also produced several notable figures. On the historical front, prominent locals include Edwin Stanton, who served as Abraham Lincoln's secretary of war during the Civil War, and the Tuskegee Airmen brothers, Jerome and Ellis Edwards. In pop culture, the city gave the world an icon of entertainment: Dean Martin. All of these individuals are prominently featured in the Steubenville's celebrated mural collection, preserving their legacies in the very community that shaped them.

Decades before legal street art gained mainstream acceptance, Steubenville began its journey to becoming the City of Murals. The initiative, launched in 1986, aimed to transform the community into a place that championed art and history. While public murals are now common, the concept was still relatively new at the time. In fact, the groundbreaking Philadelphia Mural Arts Program had only begun two years earlier. Today, other Buckeye State cities also feature mural collections, from charming riverside towns to places voted as having the most spectacular street art in America.

Steubenville's outdoor art gallery tells the story of key people, events, and sites from both local and national history. A mural of Dean Martin features the entertainer alongside his beloved Rat Pack, while another depicts explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark with members of their team, including the invaluable Sacagawea. Other murals celebrate jazz pianist and singer Dorothy Sloop and barrier-breaking baseball player Moses Fleetwood Walker, while also paying tribute to the town's industrial past and pioneer days. While a few artworks, such as a series of 33 smiley faces, may fall outside the official mural program, they add to the city's unique charm. Visitors can pick up a map at the Steubenville Convention and Visitors Bureau for a self-guided walking tour to see them all.

For all the historical figures celebrated in its murals, Steubenville has yet to dedicate one to its most famous — and most controversial — culinary creation: Ohio Valley-style pizza. This unique take was born in 1945, when World War II veteran Primo DiCarlo opened DiCarlo's Pizza. Eight decades later, the family business endures, with Primo's great-grandson still operating the original location in downtown Steubenville.

So, what makes this pizza style so divisive? It may come down to the preparation. The pizza begins with a square, high-gluten crust that is parbaked with a small amount of sauce and sometimes a thin layer of cheese. The key difference comes after it is removed from the oven: Uncooked mozzarella and provolone are piled on top, along with cold pepperoni, banana peppers, and other toppings. The result is a regional delicacy, sometimes called a "poor man's cheesecake," designed to create a hot and cold contrast in a single bite. It's a flavor experience that might make you reconsider what Dean Martin had in mind when he sang the words "big pizza pie" in "That's Amore."

While the pizza's popularity is rooted in a small, three-state region — eastern Ohio, western Pennsylvania, and West Virginia — its geographic footprint is surprisingly compact. Due to a quirk of geography, you can drive east from Steubenville through a sliver of West Virginia and reach in Pennsylvania in less than 15 minutes. This layout also explains why the closest major airport, Pittsburgh International, is across state lines yet only 27 miles away.