DORAMAE O'KELLEY
Late Nineteenth Century
Courthouse
Architecture in Northwestern
Ohio
As one drives through northwestern Ohio,
the most impressive object to
be seen on the skyline of many
communities might be the massive, towered,
form of the county courthouse. Often the
city's largest and most
distinguished example of architecture,
these courthouses were all built in
the last thirty years of the nineteenth
century. The importance these
structures held for the people of the
county when they were built-and their
descendants who follow-is evidenced by
the fact that they were often built
on the site of an earlier structure used
for the same purpose, which formed a
nucleus around which the business and
residential community was
organized. In most cases the existing
courthouses are the third to be built
within the county, the first and second
having been lost to fire or the need
for expansion due to a rapid rise in
population.1
The first courthouses in northwestern
Ohio counties were built in the
1830s and 40s and consisted of log,
frame, or brick construction. Their style
was derived from domestic architecture,
with the size and decoration
determined by the funds available to the
county. A few of the second
courthouses were described as plain and
substantial, though they were
larger and more imposing than the
earlier structures and some reflected the
popularity of the Greek Revival style.
Through his architecture and his
influence on those with less knowledge
and experience of Europe than his
own, Thomas Jefferson introduced the
Greek Revival style of architecture
into America in the late eighteenth
century. This style, in emulation of the
nation's capitol, was regarded as
particularly appropriate for official
architecture. The Franklin County
courthouse at Columbus and the Ohio
State Capitol building were early
examples of this style, which was to
become common in Ohio before the Civil
War.2
Doramae O'Kelley is a lecturer in art
history at Adrian College, Adrian, Michigan
1. The Defiance Democrat, October
2, 1869, reported a 200 percent rise in the population
of that city between 1860 and 1869.
2. The Franklin County courthouse was
completed in 1840. Its size and location might
have made it an attractive model to
emulate. Construction did not begin on the State Capitol
until 1848; however, the competition for
a design was held in 1838. This design might have