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The following information
is taken from
Wood County Historical Highlights 1894-1994
by Paul Willis Jones |
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In the Beginning
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Petitions, which were
circulated throughout Wood County in January 1893,
requested legislation authorizing the erection of a
new courthouse. The enabling act, in effect February
2, 1893, permitted county commissioners to erect the
building and issue bonds not to exceed $200,000.
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The law also directed
Circuit Court judges to appoint a four-member
Building Committee to act and vote with the
construction and furnishing of the building.
Announced February 28, 1893, the committee members
included two farmers, John Ault and Edward B.
Beverstock, and two Bowling Green residents,
attorney Frank A. Baldwin and bank president Earl W.
Merry. |
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Ignoring the
committee, the commissioners contracted, May 3,
1893, with the Columbus architectural firm of Yost 7
Packard. T. B. Townsend, Zanesville, on November 2,
1893, became the general contractor with his low bid
of $153,803.08.City Council granted permission on
October 3, 1893, for temporary railroad tracks along
Pike Street to the courthouse. About 750 carloads of
building material were eventually delivered on that
switch. |
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Before the old
courthouse was razed, county offices were moved into
temporary quarters leased in the then-new City
Building. |
Groundbreaking
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Ground for the present
courthouse was broken November 28, 1893, but inability to
get lake sand that winter delayed work on the foundation
until March 15, 1894. |
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An estimated 15,000 people
thronged to Bowling Green for the laying of the courthouse
cornerstone July 4, 1894. Three special trains carried a
total of 3,400 people to the county seat that day. |
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All three county
commissioners, a former commissioner, the architectural
firm, and the general contractor were indicted June 4, 1895,
in connection with courthouse construction. |
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On June 26, 1895, three
commissioners were found guilty of misconduct in office in
employing the courthouse architect without acting in
conjunction with the Building Committee. |
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The judge removed two
commissioners from office on July 20, 1895, but the Ohio
Supreme Court reversed the convictions the following March
31. |
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The prosecuting attorney on
December 2, 1895, nollied all the indictments against the
county commissioners and the two contractors “which have not
already had trial.” County commissioners, on August
31, 1896, accepted the new building, and county offices were
moved the next two days. |
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The new Common Pleas Courtroom
was dedicated September 7, 1896, but the new building was
never dedicated. There was a so-called re-dedication
November 1, 1981. |
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Fully furnished and with
grounds improved, the building in September 1896 was
reported to have cost $255,746.84. A later estimate was
$275,000. The architect’s original estimate had been
$187,570.79. You will recall that the legislature had
authorized $200,000 in bonds.
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Clock Tower
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The E. Howard Watch and Clock Co. made the huge tower
clock for $3,000. The bells weighs 2,000 pounds and the
hands spread to a diameter of 16 feet. The hands were
the second largest on an American clock, exceeded in
size only by the 16.5-foot dials on the Chronicle
newspaper building in San Francisco. Before our
courthouse clock was made, the second largest one in the
United States had been on the Board of Trade Building in
New York. Its dials were only 12.5 feet in diameter.
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The clock had been guaranteed to vary no more than 10
seconds a month. A few months after it was installed, a
Bowling Green newspaper reported the clock “goes when it
pleases and makes its own time.”
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The Original hands of the clock reportedly were made of
basswood-not of wrought iron as spelled out in the
contract. The present ones are of metal. Hands of the
clock were apparently frozen during the blizzard of
1978.Each of the four faces of the clock has 12 electric
light bulbs, one for each hour stop. To replace a
burned-out bulb, a steeplejack has to climb the
treacherous steps to the tower and then walk outside on
a narrow ledge. The bell tower rises 195 feet above the
ground level. To enter the tower one must ride the
elevator to the attic, and then ascend 195 steps. These
include three floors of steep steps, followed by three
steel ladders.
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A little shanty just below the faces of the clock houses
the mechanism. A huge arm with a sledgehammer on the end
strikes the bell. An electric motor replaced the weights
that originally activated the clock gears.
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Plans to purchase the “second largest clock in the
world” were announced September 26, 1895, but the clock
was ordered until July 20, 1896. The bell did not strike
the time until January 30, 1897, and the hands were not
installed until later.
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Finishing touches on the courthouse were completed April
10, 1897. Stone carving was the final project.
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Architecture
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The style of courthouse architecture is modernized H. H.
Richardson Romanesque. All the massive walls rest on
solid rock.
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The sandstone was from Amherst, Ohio, and the granite
from Vermont. Limestone was used for steps, platforms,
and doorsills while marble appears in various places.
The architectural sculpture was done by the Dayton firm
of Whyte & Priest, with W. D. Priest the supervisor.
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Here is an 1896 explanation of the courthouse stone
carving:
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“There are several allegorical subjects among the
different designs. The springers for the main arch
represent the strong arm of the law crushing out vice
and corruption, the animal representing the law and the
snake under his foot vice and corruption; the stops at
the ends of the label molds represent avarice, sprays
deprived of its prey by the law, starves, which is
illustrated by the biting itself. The outside architrave
mold in the vestibule represents unity, there being
three sprays in each circle interlaced together; the
heads at the top in the same course represent (in art
terms) autumn and winter, the matron representing autumn
and the old man winter. The inner architrave represents
evil in the meshes of the law and is illustrated with
animal being tied in with a design of interlaced work.”
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The grand stairway has polished marble steps and
electro-bronzed railings. The Athenian marble finish on
the columns surrounding the stairway opening was “of
recent origin” when the building was constructed.
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The bronze-finished chandeliers were made for either gas
or electricity by the Western Gas Fixture Co., Toledo.
Furniture of quarter-sawed white oak was manufactured by
M. Ohmer’s Sons Co., Dayton.
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Murals
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I. M. Taylor, an artist and
the 1911-1920 mayor of Bowling Green, painted the two large
murals on the third floor. (He was the grandfather of
Harriet Cunningham, retired teacher at Bowling Green Senior
High School.) Fort Meigs is portrayed on the east wall and
railroad tracks and oil wells south of Portage on the west
wall. |
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Bowling Green newspapers late
in 1896 referred to the building as “the county’s new
palatial temple of justice,” “grand beyond any
anticipation,” “and “as magnificent a piece of architecture
as you will ever deserve to see.” |
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Green County officials said in
1900 that they liked the wood County Courthouse the best of
such building they had see in Ohio and Indiana. A book
salesman who had visited half the American courthouses rated
the one in Bowling Green as his favorite. |
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Courthouse office crowding was
relieved after the 1975-1977 construction of the Wood County
Office Building. That five-story structure behind the
courthouse cost $4,442,00. Now the courthouse has only court
functions, and not all of them. |
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Courthouse restoration from
1979 to 1981 totaled $3,216,668. Thus it cost 12 times as
much to restore the building, as it had to erect it about 85
years earlier. The restoration was financed by federal revenue
sharing money and the county’s piggyback sales tax, with no
property tax involved. |
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A variety of work was done in
the 1979-1981 courthouse restoration:
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The murals were restored
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To match the original
marble where needed, white marble was imported from
Italy. |
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A second common pleas
courtroom was added and various offices were rearranged
and redesigned. |
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Central air conditioning
and a ventilation system permitted the removal of window
units. Plumbing and wiring were upgraded and brass
handrails, marble staircases and tile floors were
preserved. Much plaster and paint is new.
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Cushioned benches on
carpeting replaced theater-style seats in courtrooms.
Windows shutters and some lighting fixtures are new.
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Special care was taken to
protect the $200,000 worth of stained glass on the ceiling
over the marble staircase. |
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For courthouse restoration
design work, the Toledo firm of Munger, Munger and
Associates received an Honor award from the Architect
Society of Ohio of the American Society of Architects. It
was the only such award to Northwest Ohio in 1981.
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Earlier
Courthouses
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Daniel Hubbell and Guy Nearing
submitted the successful $895 bid to construct the first
Wood County Courthouse. It was built of logs in 1823-1824 in
Perrysburg on the south side of West Front Street, about 200
feet west of Louisiana Avenue. |
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The second courthouse at
Perrysburg was a Roman-Doric structure of basilica style.
The two-story brick building was on a stone foundation.
There were four two-story columns and a cupola.
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Started in 1837 and completed
six years later, the building was at the northwest corner of
Walnut street and West Indiana Avenue. The cost was $20,000
and the contractors were Loomis Brigham and Jairus Curtis.
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After the abandoned building
burned on April 23, 1872, the Perrysburg Township Hall was
constructed on the site. The site is now occupied by the
Perrysburg Municipal Building and Jail. |
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Wood County Jail
The county jail behind the courthouse was completed in
1902. Its $49,551.60 cost was financed by levy funds.
Voters at a special election December 18, 1900, approved
the issuance of $50,000 in bonds. The victory margin was
only 124 votes. The Fremont firm of Fronizer & Andrews
erected the building after the May 21, 1901,
groundbreaking. The courthouse was placed on the
National Register of Historic Places in 1973 and the
jail the next year. The jail was vacated in 1990 when
the Wood County Justice Center on East Gypsy Lane Road
was completed.
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Major Contracts
Awarded for Courthouse Construction
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1893-1896 |
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May 3,
1893 |
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Yost & Packard,
Columbus, architects |
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Nov. 6, 1893 |
$153,803.08 |
T.B. Townsend,
Zanesville, contractor |
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August
21, 1894 |
$13,850.00 |
Fenton Metallic Co.,
Jamestown, N.Y., metallic furniture |
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Sept. 12, 1895 |
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Mosaic Tile Co.,
Zanesville, mosaic tile |
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Sept. 16, 1895 |
$16,
855.15 |
The M. Ohmer’s Sons
Co., Dayton, furniture |
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Oct. 1895 |
$1,325.00 |
Bostwick, Braun & Co.,
Toledo, electric wiring |
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Dec. 9, 1895 |
$1,325.00 |
Flanigan & Biedenweg,
Chicago, art glass |
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Dec. 19, 1895 |
$600.00
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Acme Paving Co.,
Columbus, Athenian marble |
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March 13,
1896 |
$3,500.00 |
O.J. Koover & Son,
Fort Wayne, Ind., frescoing |
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March 29,
1896 |
$4,071.15 |
Acme Paving CO.,
Columbus, Athenian marble finish |
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March 29,
1896 |
$5,905.00 |
T.B. Townsend, marble
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May 10,
1896 |
$3,400.00 |
Western Gas Fixture
Co., Toledo, electrical fixtures |
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June 6,
1896 |
$3,805.00 |
W.D. Priest, Dayton,
carving stone |
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June 6,
1896 |
$960.00 |
O.J Koover & Sons,
more frescoing |
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June 6,
1896 |
$3,895.00 |
Whyte & Priest,
Dayton, stone carving |
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July 20,
1896 |
$3,000.00 |
The E. Howard Watch
and Clock Co., Chicago |
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Aug. 17, 1896 |
$2,700.00 |
Houghton Foundry &
Machine Co., Toledo elevator |
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Aug.
21, 1896 |
$0.16 /
sq. foot |
Acme Paving Co.,
Columbus, concrete walks |
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Sept. 21, 1896 |
$0.10 /1,000
watts |
Bowling Green Electric
Light & Power Co., lighting |
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Eleazor Darby
Wood
From the Journal
of the Northwestern Campaign of 1812-1813
under Major-General Wm. H. Harrison
by BVT. LIEUT.-COLONEL ELEAZOR D. WOOD
Captain Corps. of Engineers, U.S. Army
Annotated and Indexed by Robert B. Boehm and
Randall L. Buchman
(Reprinted with permission) |
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Eleazor Darby Wood was born in
Lunenburg, Massachusetts, in December, 1783. As a young man
he studied medicine briefly at Albury, Vermont, but quickly
chose a military career instead when he received an
appointment to the recently created United States Military
Academy at West Point. The academy was not yet a four year
school so Wood spent a relatively short time there, entering
May 17, 1805 and graduating October 30, 1806.
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He was at once commissioned
second lieutenant in the engineers and was assigned to duty
assisting in the construction of defenses on Governor's
Island in New York Harbor. In February 1808 he was promoted
to first lieutenant and sent to Norfolk Virginia, where he
was in command of a force detailed to fortify the harbor
there. After two years at this work (1808-1810) he was
promoted to captain, quite rapid advancement for a young
officer in the miniscule United States Army.
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His experience in the War of
1812 began at New London, Connecticut, where he was in
charge of the defenses for a brief period. He was soon
ordered to Sag Harbor on Long Island to supervise the
erection of a fortified battery. |
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In November, 1812, Captain
Wood was assigned to the "Northwestern Army" where he found
himself doing the work of the chief engineer due to the
illness of Captain Gratiot who officially held that post.
His service in northwestern Ohio included overseeing the
construction of Fort Meigs, some work on Fort Stephenson (at
present-day Fremont) and assisting in the movement of
General Harrison's army to Canada after Perry's victory on
Lake Erie. |
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On May 6, 1813, while the
siege of Fort Meigs was in progress he was brevetted* major.
After participating in the crucial battle of the Thames in
Canada, Wood was transferred to western New York where he
served with distinction in the Niagara area. For his conduct
at the Battle of Niagara he was brevetted once more, to the
rank of lieutenant colonel, in June, 1814. |
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His career came to end on
September 17, 1814, when he was killed during an assault on
British forces besieging Ft. Erie. It seems more than likely
that his career would have continued with distinction had he
survived the War of 1812. He was a man of ability, bravery,
and common sense who won the admiration and friendship of
most of his military colleagues. |
*Brevet rank was a temporary
service in a higher rank.
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