Van Wert County Courthouse
Ohio
The Van Wert County Courthouse is one of the most striking public buildings in northwestern Ohio. Completed in October eighteen seventy-six at a cost of one hundred ten thousand one hundred seventy-four dollars, it was designed by T. J.
Tolan of Fort Wayne in the Second Empire style. A central tower rises one hundred ten feet, framed by four corner cupolas, and the tower clock inside was manufactured by E. Howard and Company of Boston in eighteen seventy-five.
The clock weighs two thousand pounds; its bell, cast by the Troy Bell Company of New York, weighs three thousand pounds and was audible for miles. Construction was delayed by a strike among the mason workers, but county officers moved in on schedule. The courthouse has been in continuous use for nearly one hundred fifty years.
