Built Environment : Example Properties : USA : Old Northwest : Ohio : Ross County : Chillicothe :

Old Stone Courthouse / First Ohio Statehouse / Second Ross County Courthouse

Almost mythical icon of the first capital of Ohio

This building, almost mythical in Chillicothe and Ross County, is what led me to investigate the Foursquare Courthouse / Public Building Form.

Other images created around the Ohio centennial in 1903 are less accurate depictions.

Just down the street from its former location is a semi-accurate 1940 reproduction built for the local newspaper.

Formerly located in the center of Chillicothe, Ross County, Ohio, USA. The building was at about UTM XXXXXX) viewable on a XXXXXX USGS topographic map.

Built Environment Classification:
- Classification: Structure
- Structure Type: Building
- Building Form: Foursquare Public Building
- Original Use: Courthouse (and soon Statehouse)

Architectural Style: Federal

Chronology: Built 1801; demolished 1853 (replacement building built 1850s)

* All Images are linked to large-sized versions. *

A simple three-dimensional rendering of the building shows it candlelit at twilight (my favorite way to light a rendering).

On the left is the front and side. The human figure is approximately the correct height; the 1852 illustration shows an adult man's head at about first storey windowsill level.

On the right is the rear and other side. The semicircular apse-like projection was an original part of the design.

1801 illustration from a printed image showing landmarks in early Chillicothe...

1845 Illustration on page 508, volume 2, Historical Collections of Ohio, in Two Volumes (Howe 1896) - as reprinted as Figure 4, "Diffusion of Foursquare Courthouses to the Midwest 1785-1885" (Ohman 1982)

c1852 image from a Masonic publication, discovered recently by the Ross County Historical Society. The Dauguerrotype it was copied from has not been found yet. ...

The wethervane is bent over because it had been hit by lightning, which apparently melted its base a little and allowed the shaft to lean. The original metal cut-out eagle survives, and is hanging in the downtown main building of the Chillicothe-Ross County Public Library.

The building was poorly heated with only one corner fireplace, so a heating stove was added; thus the stubby stovepipe projecting from the roof just in front of the cupola.

Gussied up and enlarged, this is the 150% "replica" of the building, built about a century after the original was destroyed.

This is the 1940 headquarters of the Chillicothe Gazette at 50 West Main Street, half a block away from its prototype.

You are at Built Environment : Example Properties : USA : Old Northwest : Ohio : Ross County : Chillicothe : Old Stone Courthouse / First Ohio Statehouse / Second Ross County Courthouse

You also got here from Built Environment : Structures : Buildings : The Foursquare Courthouse Form : Gallery 2 : Ohio : Ross County : Chillicothe : Old Stone Courthouse