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Washington Court House is the seat of Fayette County, Ohio. Originally known simply as Washington, someone appended the “Court House” part to the name around the turn of the twentieth century. I guess the city’s unusual moniker helps distinguish it from the Ohio communities of Old Washington, New Washington; Washingtonville, and Port Washington.

The actual courthouse in Washington Court House is Fayette County’s third. The first was built in 1813 using bricks burned from the clay excavated from digging its foundation. It burned down after fourteen years. A second with a fireproof interior and thirty-foot office wing was built shortly afterwards.

A bell was added to the building in 1836, and another office wing came in 1844. A third addition was added to the building’s northwestern side in 1848². The building looked weird, as if perfunctory, one-story additions had been haphazardly connected to a stately, federalist structure.

Designed by David W. Gibbs, the present courthouse was built between 1882 and 1885. Gibbs was a prolific architect. In Ohio, he was responsible for courthouses in Marion, Marysville, and Napoleon, and he also designed one in Charlotte, Michigan. Despite the grandeur of his courthouses, Gibbs’ crowning architectural achievement was the 146-foot-tall Wyoming State Capitol completed in 1917.

Gibbs was an interesting character. Shortly after he finished his midwestern courthouses, he moved to an unsettled part of Indian territory during the Oklahoma Land Run. One of 10,000 homesteaders to settle in modern-day Oklahoma City, Gibbs established a well-known ice cream parlor. Eventually, he was made chairman of the board that organized Oklahoma City’s first election in 1890. Today, he’s recognized as the city’s fourth mayor.

Prominent architects like Gibbs routinely reused or adapted their blueprints. His courthouses in Marion and Charlotte strongly resemble his design for Washington Courthouse, and I wouldn’t be shocked to learn that he used the same set of plans for the trio.

The Fayette County Courthouse’s 135-foot clock tower can be seen from miles away, but not from Marion or Charlotte! Below the tower, the building is a hundred feet square⁵. It features a raised basement of smooth stone with rectangular windows, and stairs on three sides provide access to main entrances recessed within monumental arches.

Features of the building’s first full story, like arched windows framed by carved faces within circular portals, are set in rusticated stone. The top floor resumes the smooth stone motif of the first story, albeit with Corinthian pilasters and a decorative frieze. Up above, the courthouse is topped with its large, open, belfry which was still under construction when its original Seth Thomas clock was installed⁵. 

As well-appointed as the building appears from the outside, its perhaps best known for its unique, third-floor murals that depict female spirits of electricity, telegraphy, and the United States Mail. The pictures have gotten enough fame that, at one point, a sign on the south side of the courthouse green even provided directions for visitors to find them⁶. 

Gibbs’ courthouses in Marion and Charlotte share many of the same features, but they don’t have bullet holes in their doors! Just a decade after the courthouse was completed, a crowd gathered outside the building in hopes of lynching a black man named Jasper Dolby who was accused of assaulting a white woman.

Although Governor William McKinley dispatched the state militia to subdue them, the rioters swarmed the courthouse’s entryways in an attempt to break down the doors. Stationed inside, Colonel Alonzo B. Coit ordered his troops to fire through the building’s doors, an effort that ultimately killed five people in the mob and injured many others. Colt stood trial but was acquitted⁷. The doors were never replaced, and bullet holes can still be seen at the southeastern entrance of the courthouse⁸.

Despite the bullet holes, some believe that the Fayette County Courthouse is one of David W. Gibbs’ finest, as well as one of the best-preserved courthouses in the state⁹. I’ve been to forty of them, and I agree! Perhaps exemplified by the unique nomenclature of the city it sits in, the courthouse at Washington Court House epitomizes my mental picture of a true classic.

TL;DR
Fayette County (pop. 28,525, 74/88)
Washington Court House (pop. 14,114).
Built: 1885
Cost: $45,000 ($1.21 million today)
Architect: David W. Gibbs
Style: Second Empire
Courthouse Square: Shelbyville Square
Height: 135 feet
Current use: County offices and courts
Photographed: 11/2/2019

Sources Cited
1 “City Explains Its Reason in Deciding Name” The Newark Advocate [Newark]. September 5, 1931. 12. Print. 
2 Allen, Frank M. “History of Fayette County Ohio: Her People, Industries, and Institutions” B.F. Bowen & Company, Inc. [Indianapolis]. 1914. Print.
3 Courthouse History. Keith Vincent. 2018. Web. Retrieved 3/8/21.
4 National Register of Historic Places, Fayette County Courthouse, Washington Court House, Fayette County, Ohio, National Register # 73001433.
5 “Fayette County Courthouse” The Supreme Court of Ohio & The Ohio Judicial System. The Supreme Court of Ohio [Columbus]. Web. Retrieved 3/8/21.
6 Thrane, Susan W., Patterson, B., & Patterson, T. “County Courthouses of Ohio” Indiana University Press [Bloomington]. November 1, 2000. Print. 
7 “Col. Coit Acquitted” The St. Joseph News-Press [St. Joseph]. March 9, 1895. Print. 1.
8 “Bullet Holes in a Courthouse Door” Travel88. Web. Retrieved 3/8/21.
9 (See footnote 5).