Wood County Courthouse
Town: Short Feature
The Wood County Courthouse in Bowling Green can be seen from miles away. Built in the late 1800’s, the courthouse is a elaborate stone structure with a central clock tower that reaches 195 feet into the sky.
Ground was first broken for the courthouse on November 28, 1893 and construction lasted until September of 1896, costing eventually $255,746.84, a bit over the original budget of $200,000.
The exterior walls of the structure are made completely of stone; a mix of limestone, granite, and sandstone were used. Inside, the floors and master stairway are made of marble. The walls in the large upper chamber are painted with murals depicting scenes from early days in Wood County.
Throughout the building ornate elements abound, from custom doorknobs to the massive colored-glass ceiling above the central atrium. All around the exterior of the building, intricate handmade carvings of faces and gargoyle-like creatures watch outward from the walls.
The original clock for the tower was built by the E Howard Watch and Clock Company at a cost of $3,000. It’s hands reached 16 feet across, making it at the time the second largest clock face in the United States, behind the clock in the Chronicle News Paper building in San Francisco, California.
The huge clock hands, now made of metal, were originally constructed of wood but were often thrown off time by birds nesting within the clock face. And when the blizzard of 1978 buried most of northern Ohio for days, the clock hands, too, were frozen in place.
The courthouse remains the center of county business in Wood County. In 1976, a separate office building was added next to the original structure, and in 2004 an atrium connecting the office building to the courthouse was constructed as part of other major renovation work. The combined facilities host many of the departments that keep the county running, including the Common Pleas Court, Probate Court, the County Treasurer, the County Engineer, the Board of the Elections, and the County Commissioner’s offices, among others.