The Perry County Courthouse is a historic government building in the city of

New Lexington New Lexington is a village in and the county seat of Perry County, Ohio, United States, southwest of Zanesville and miles southeast of Columbus. The population was 4,435 at the 2020 census. History Early history The area around New Lexington ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Built near the end of the nineteenth century after the end of a

county seat war A county seat war is an American phenomenon that occurred mainly in the Old West as it was being settled and county lines determined. Incidents elsewhere, such as in Michigan, Appalachian Ohio, and West Virginia, have also been recorded. As ...

, it is the fifth

courthouse A courthouse or court house is a structure which houses judicial functions for a governmental entity such as a state, region, province, county, prefecture, regency, or similar governmental unit. A courthouse is home to one or more courtrooms, ...

to serve

Perry County Perry County may refer to: United States *Perry County, Alabama *Perry County, Arkansas *Perry County, Illinois *Perry County, Indiana *Perry County, Kentucky *Perry County, Mississippi *Perry County, Missouri *Perry County, Ohio * Perry Cou ...

, and it has been named a

historic site A historic site or heritage site is an official location where pieces of political, military, cultural, or social history have been preserved due to their cultural heritage value. Historic sites are usually protected by law, and many have been re ...

because of its imposing architecture.

History

After Perry County was established in 1817, the

county commission A county commission (or a board of county commissioners) is a group of elected officials (county commissioners) collectively charged with administering the county government in some states of the United States. A county usually has three to fiv ...

ers and courts met for their first two years at John Fink's tavern on the eastern side of

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

at the corner of Main Street (the Zane Trace) and High Street. At the end of the two years, county officials began using their newly completed jail as a courthouse; it was a jail more than anything else, and the commissioners and other people did not like to call it a courthouse, but a courtroom was provided in the second story, as well as room for other county officers. It functioned as a courthouse from 1819 until 1829. In 1826, bids were let for the construction of a purpose-built courthouse on Somerset's public square; it was occupied three years later, and the old "courthouse" jail soon succumbed to fire. Ever since the creation of the county, the village of

had been agitating to become the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

, and a

war ensued in the 1850s; after three new state laws, three elections, and two decisions by the

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

, the county offices departed Somerset for the upstart community in early 1857,Thrane, Susan W. ''County Courthouses of Ohio''. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2000, 119-120. leaving the old courthouse to be used by Somerset as its

village hall A village hall is a public building in a rural or suburban community which functions as a community centre without a religious affiliation. United Kingdom In the United Kingdom, a village hall is a building which is owned by a local gover ...

. The first courthouse at New Lexington was not paid for by the taxpayers in general, because advocates of New Lexington as county seat had raised the necessary amount through private donations. Among the stipulations of the state law permitting the removal of the county seat was that suitable buildings should be provided if the seat were to be moved; such a building was finished, but it stood vacant for several years before the offices were placed in it.Martzolff, Clement Luther.
History of Perry County, Ohio
'.

: Ward and Weiland, 1902, 134. As the end of the nineteenth century approached, the county's needs expanded to the point that the old courthouse was insufficient, and a fifth courthouse, the present structure, was erected in 1887 and dedicated one year later.

Architecture

Richardsonian Romanesque Richardsonian Romanesque is a architectural style, style of Romanesque Revival architecture named after the American architect Henry Hobson Richardson (1838–1886). The revivalism (architecture), revival style incorporates 11th- and 12th-century ...

building constructed of stone; the

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

walls are laid in a random fashion, while the ashlar of the foundation is laid in a more regular manner. Visitors can enter the building through a grand recessed entrance under an

arch An arch is a curved vertical structure spanning an open space underneath it. Arches may support the load above them, or they may perform a purely decorative role. As a decorative element, the arch dates back to the 4th millennium BC, but stru ...

way at the top of a grand staircase; upon reaching the interior, they find themselves in a hallway with a tiled floor and plaster

relief Relief is a sculpture, sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''wikt:relief, relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give ...

s on the walls between the entrances for various county offices. The most prominent component of the exterior is the two-part

clock tower Clock towers are a specific type of structure that house a turret clock and have one or more clock faces on the upper exterior walls. Many clock towers are freestanding structures but they can also adjoin or be located on top of another building ...

in the center, which rises above the street, but the entire building derives an appearance of great size from its three-

story Story or stories may refer to: Common uses * Narrative, an account of imaginary or real people and events ** Short story, a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting ** News story, an event or topic reported by a news orga ...

constructionOwen, Lorrie K., ed. ''Dictionary of Ohio Historic Places''. Vol. 2. St. Clair Shores: Somerset, 1999, 1136-1137. and from the large monolithic wall above the main entrance. Its Romanesque influence is apparent from details such as the miniature

turret Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Optical microscope#Objective turret (revolver or revolving nose piece), Objective turre ...

s above the main entrance and on the corners of the tower. From its earliest years, the courthouse has been considered one of Ohio's grandest, due in part to its location in a small community in a rural county.

Jail

Located behind the courthouse is the old county jail, a three-story brick building. Also constructed in 1887, it succeeded the old courthouse as the jail; the 1857 courthouse included dedicated jail space on its first floor.Graham, A.A., ed. ''History of Fairfield and Perry Counties, Ohio: Their Past and Present''.

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

: Beers, 1883.

Recent history

In 1981, the Perry County Courthouse and its jail were listed together on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

, qualifying for designation both because of their architecture and because of their place in Ohio's history. In the 1990s, the courthouse attracted statewide attention when a prominent lawsuit, '' DeRolph v. State'', was filed in the Perry County Common Pleas Court. Claiming that Ohio's existing system of school funding violated the state constitution, a coalition of school districts in southern Ohio sued the state in 1991 in order to force through a fundamental change in school funding.Drew, James.
Coalition Legal Fees $3.6M and Growing: Ohio Taxpayers Foot Bills for Columbus Firm's Work
. '' The Blade'', 2001-06-17. Accessed 2013-05-22. Upon the county judge's ruling in favor of the coalition three years later, the lawsuit was appealed through the courts and received numerous trials in all levels of the Ohio judiciary throughout the rest of the decade, including multiple decisions by the Supreme Court.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places Government buildings completed in 1887 Buildings and structures in Perry County, Ohio National Register of Historic Places in Perry County, Ohio Clock towers in Ohio County courthouses in Ohio Courthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Ohio New Lexington, Ohio Romanesque Revival architecture in Ohio