Morrow County Courthouse (Ohio)

Morrow County Courthouse And Jail
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Front and eastern side
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Interactive map showing the location of Morrow County Courthouse
Location	Courthouse Sq., Mount Gilead, Ohio
Coordinates	40°32′57″N 82°49′37″W / 40.54917°N 82.82694°W / 40.54917; -82.82694
Area	2 acres (0.81 ha)
Built	1852 (1852)
Architect	David Auld; Auld & Miller
Architectural style	Greek Revival
NRHP reference No.	74001586[1]
Added to NRHP	July 25, 1974

The Morrow County Courthouse is a historic government building in the village of Mount Gilead, Ohio, United States. Constructed in the middle of the nineteenth century, it has served as the county courthouse since Morrow County's earliest years, and it has been named a historic site.

History

One of

By 1880, the architecture of the 1850s had fallen into disfavor: a county history published in that year noted that the courthouse "possess[ed], however, little beauty or modern appearance" and suggested that county money be spent on "modernizing the ungainly structure."[3]^: 306 Sixteen years passed before any substantial changes were made; in 1896, the building was expanded, and the facade was modified with some modernizing changes, but the building's basic plan remained. The next substantial change occurred during the Great Depression of the 1930s: the increasing availability of federal money prompted local officials to apply for and receive a grant, with which they again modified the building's appearance and added a new courtroom inside a new wing on the building's rear. No substantial changes have been made since that time.^[2]: 33

Architecture

Built of brick on a stone foundation, the courthouse is covered with a slate roof and features elements of wood and stone.^[5] Before the modernization of 1896, the facade included a small cupola and a pediment with a fanlight,^[3]: 171 resembling somewhat the present appearance of the Highland County Courthouse in Hillsboro,^[2]: 19 and a Doric column on each side of the two-story entrance,^[3]: 171 similar to the present-day Knox County Courthouse in Mount Vernon.^[2]: 34 Today, the pediment is pierced by a large tower, a later addition that occupies the place of the cupola;^[2]: 34 a prominent clock appears on all four sides of the tower, and a bell is placed inside.^[6] The interior is accessed through the southern (front) facade,^[2]: 33 with a rounded arch entrance in place of the original Greek Revival design,^[2]: 34 but some elements of the original design remain: for example, numerous pilasters on the walls once concealed the building's many chimneys, and certain parts of the second story of the interior, left unchanged by construction, depict all three stages of the courthouse's history. At the top of the building, a cornice and a plain frieze crown the walls, while a finial and pagoda-shaped roof sit at the peak of the fifty-foot tower.^[2]: 33

Preservation

More than a century and a half old, the Morrow County Courthouse remains in use for its original purposes: no organizations except for local government operate within its walls,^[2]: 33 and the Morrow County and Mount Gilead village courts continue to meet in its courtrooms.^[6] In 1974, the courthouse and 1850 county jail were listed on the National Register of Historic Places together, qualifying because of their distinctive historic architecture.^[1]

References