January 2025.
While I was in Newark visiting Louis Sullivan’s Home Building Association Bank, I figured I’d explore downtown a little more and see some other local architectural landmarks. The most prominent is definitely Licking County’s courthouse, as Newark is the county seat. Since I’m a busy college student and only have time to make day trips like this on the weekend, I couldn’t see the inside.
The Licking County Courthouse is located at 20 S 2nd Street in downtown Newark, Ohio. It is in the middle of Courthouse Square, and serves as an anchor point for the surrounding buildings and downtown as a whole. The courthouse is bordered by Park Place and Victorian-era commercial buildings to the north and south, 2nd Street and newer buildings to the east, and 3rd Street and the Home Building Association Bank to the west.
History
Licking County, east of Franklin County, was established in 1808 on land that was previously part of Fairfield County. Newark itself was settled six years earlier and named after the city in New Jersey, and it was made the county seat. The extant courthouse is the fourth.
Newark’s third courthouse. (Newark’s Lost Buildings)
The first courthouse was a log building constructed in 1809, which served as both the courthouse and church for the town. It was replaced by a more permanent brick structure around 1815, which the town quickly outgrew. Apparently, a whipping post used for public punishments was built on the square during this period. In 1832, a more elaborate Greek Revival brick courthouse was built to replace the second. However, it burned down in 1875. It seems like most Newark residents were glad to see it go, as they considered it obsolete and run-down. At the dedication of the current courthouse, Colonel Charles Kibler described the third as an “unhygienic nuisance” and lauded its “accidental destruction.” Even when it was built, residents decried the elaborate ornamentation and its expenses.
A postcard of the current courthouse. (Explore Licking County)
When construction began on the current Licking County Courthouse in 1876, the county had fewer than 40,000 residents and a largely farming-based economy. However, county officials hired Cleveland architect Henry E. Meyer and ordered the building to be designed in the then-avant-garde Second Empire style, a bold choice for the time. Using French architecture as precedent, it was a popular choice for government buildings during the late 19th century. The courthouse’s cornerstone was laid on July 4, 1876, the centennial of the United States’s declaration of independence. Its construction was completed in 1878.
The Licking County Courthouse is a rectangle in plan, but the symmetricality of the design hides this fact. Its foundation is sandstone, possibly quarried from Black Hand Gorge, and the walls are built of Sandusky limestone. The crowning dome was originally built out of wood, but it suffered a major fire in 1879, and it was rebuilt using stone in 1880. Beyond this, the building appears identical to how it did when it was built.
The clock tower on fire in 1879. (Explore Licking County)
I didn’t get to see the interior, but Explore Licking County has quite the description on their website:
“Impressive architecture and historic charm do not stop at the exterior. The second and third floors exude an old-world ambiance accentuated by gilt chandeliers, elaborate crown molding, embossed ceilings, and gleaming woodwork. Nowhere is the historic charm grander than the Common Pleas Courtroom on the third floor. If the Courthouse is the centerpiece of Newark, then the courtroom is the crown jewel of the Courthouse. Swathed in gilt finishes and decorated with murals that depict historical events and biblical justice, guarded by the eyes of several great men, the Courtroom is considered by many to be one of the most beautiful in the state.
“The courtroom is in its own right a museum, filled with architecture, art, and antiques. Countless people have sat under its domed ceiling, and many have left their mark. The painted murals on the ceiling are darkened by smoke damage, possibly a result of the 1879 clock tower fire, but most likely due to years of cigar and cigarette smoke from a time when smoking was permitted in public spaces. Scratches down the center of the first row of benches were left by the belt of prisoners’ restraints as they awaited their time to face the judge. Toward the back of the room stands a wooden case containing a special artifact: a small iron bell, on permanent loan from the Robbins Hunter Museum in Granville, which is the only remnant of Licking County’s first Courthouse.”
The courthouse interior during its restoration. (The Newark Advocate)
The Licking County Courthouse was individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973, and it is also a contributing property to the separate Downtown Historic District, which was listed in 2002.
Some recent renovation work includes a new elevator, automated clocks, and a carillon system for the clock tower. A new roof and lighting system was installed in 2016, which allows the courthouse to be lit up for holidays and events. The windows and murals were restored during 2022.
Photos
The lighting was not my friend the day I visited, so the cold gray stone that makes up much of the facade almost blends in with the sky. This view looks east at the shorter western facade of the courthouse.
At the corner of 3rd Street and S Park Place, the asymmetrical plan becomes more obvious. Note how the south facade is wider in its fenestration.
Otherwise, each side of the courthouse is largely identical. As the anchor point of Newark’s “courthouse square” typology and free from surrounding buildings, every facade is meant to be viewed, and they are highly decorated accordingly. This is the larger south facade:
Each entrance is covered by a portico:
These are in the Roman Doric order, since the fluting is omitted. The simple entablature is only a bare architrave and jutting cornice. The detail is in the balustrade above the cornice, which has a decorative anthemion in the middle and stone vases centered over each column. It’s interesting to me how the columns do not extend the full length and are instead supported by massive pedestals, an almost Beaux-Arts detail. The doorway is vaulted with pilasters and an exaggerated keystone.
On the second floor, pilasters continue upward, along with a highly decorated central window:
I like the elaborate drip molds all the windows have with their exaggerated keystones.
As decorated as the bottom is, the most significant gingerbread is confined to the roof of the building. I condensed all of its features into this first shot:
Let’s start with the central pediment:
This is one of my favorite features of the building. Each side of the courthouse features a pediment like this one in the center. Unusually, it is a broken pediment, and the center is molded with a circle. The modillions are highly elaborated, too. I like the datestone with its full stop.
The roof and its tiles:
The polychromy and high mansard roof is typical of the Second Empire style; and as seen in the dormers, the roof is an occupiable floor. Note the projecting metal flap painted to blend in with the roof, a recent alteration.
Each pediment is crowned with a golden statue of Lady Justice:
This is a common personification of the concept of justice, very commonly seen on classically influenced judicial buildings. It is wrought with symbolism, which I’ll briefly explain. Lady Justice wears a toga, which is meant to represent intelligence, and she is blindfolded since justice should be impartial. The scales symbolize “weighing” the arguments of the defendant and prosecutor, and her sword represents justice’s speed.
The highly elaborate tower in its entirety:
Again, this is the rebuilt tower after the 1879 fire. I particularly enjoy its golden dome.
Bonus pic--this shot kinda took itself as I was putzing around town elsewhere:
The future seems pretty bright for the Licking County Courthouse. Excellently restored and well-maintained, it should last Newark another 150 years to come.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Licking_County%2C_Ohio
https://explorelc.org/history/the-licking-county-courthouse
Ohio Historical Marker on-site
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