Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1974. A historic map-sheet match is not published yet. The record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
From the record
“The Putnam County Courthouse is a historic governmental building in downtown Ottawa, Ohio, United States. Main Street, it was built in 1912 in the Beaux-Arts style of architecture.”
Wikipedia article Putnam County Courthouse (Ohio), CC BY-SA 4.0.
one of 7 National Register listings in Putnam County · listed in 1974 · category: Building.
National Register reference number.74001608- the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
What happened here
An account from the chapter on Ottawa township, The inset identifies its exact
source book and publication year.
In 1852, during the epidemic of cholera, Gilboa was the worst afflicted illage in the county. It had nineteen cases of the dread disease, from which fourteen deaths occurred, only five persons who had the disease recovering. A great many of the people fled from the village, and only two doctorsremained to administer to the afflicted.
Ottawa township was organized in March, 1835, with a limited number of people who had settled in the township during the previous two years. One of the first white settlers in the township was Geoi-ge Agner, who came here in the year 1832 and, the following year, settled on a farm east of Ottawa. William Galbreath settled on the farm adjoining Ottawa in the same year. Mr. Galbreath served in the War of 18 12 and was present at the battle of Fort Meigs. William and Jonathan Y. Sackett, Henry Crawfis, Meridith Parish, Henry Ridenour, James Parish and Christian Huber are numbered with the pioneers of this township.
The first school held in the township was taught by Christian Huber. It was held in a log cabin located northeast of the present waterworks of Ottawa. Mr. Huber was of German birth, well educated and took a prominent part in the early political affairs of the county. His pupils were a mixed assemblage of youths, a number of Indian boys being enrolled under him. The Indian boys, however, were loth to attend school regularly and frequently "played hookey," to hunt and fish.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 4 fires within 5 miles of Putnam County Courthouse between
2002 and 2002, burning about 3 acres in total. None started naturally. None was recorded as arson.
Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted
here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
Reported cause
Fires
Recreation and ceremony
2
Equipment and vehicle use
1
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
1
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. Museums hold 103 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Putnam County Courthouse between 1860 and
1969: 95 Animalia, 8 Plantae. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by Adler, K. K., Blyth & Katz, Bureau of Fisheries and others. Each is a
physical object with a catalogue
number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was
collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be
concluded from a species being absent.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
3 workings within 5 miles of Putnam County Courthouse: 2 past producers, 1 producer.
1 still produces. What was taken out: Limestone, General, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Clay. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Ottawa, the town this property stands in, in 35 storm reports between 1993 and 2022: 18 thunderstorm wind, 13 hail, 3 flash flood, 1 dust devil.
The reports record 1 death. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office
filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date
opens the federal record of that event.
Pictures and eyewitness reports confirmed a large dust devil developed on a clear and sunny day. This dust devil extended over 100 feet into the air as was easily visible. Local law enforceent officials did track the feature, with no damage being reported.
No historic map-sheet match is published
for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs
a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
Browse the county's mapped places while that work is
pending.
From the nomination file
1,270 words on record
When this property was proposed for the
National Register, someone wrote the case for it: what the building is,
and why it matters. That document is a federal record in the public domain.
It is quoted below word for word, never summarised. The text was read off the scanned case file by machine, so the
occasional stray character is the recogniser's and the 1970s
typewriter's.
Description of the property
measures approximately forty by seventy-five feet, and The first floor is constructed of rusticated stone, and the floor are rectangular and have arched, multi-paned transoms. Above the front and rear entrances are small, stone balconies windows. Alternating curved and triangular pediments are located and south through the building, and stairways are located in the DEC 1 9 1973 CONDITION DESCRIPTION NATIONAL Moved REGISTER with stone balustrades. are between each window.A decorated frieze and denticular A smooth stone belt course divides the first and second floors. The second floor is marked with a false balustrade below the is hipped, and rather gently pitched on the sides.
The two story stone Putnam County Courthouse is one of the truly and courtrooms are located on either side of the hallways. The original interior of the courthouse is intact, and is in has a five bay facade. Fair (Check One) RECEIVED excellent condition.A central hallway on both floors runs north center of the west side.A large stained glass window located the center of the front side).The windows on the first PERIOD (Check One or More as Appropriate) - Prehistoric Other (Specify) STATEMENT OF
Statement of significance
Putnam County was formed from Indian Territory, as many of its neighboring counties were, on April 1, 1820. It was not until 1834, however, that the county became a separate of the county seat, and so in the next election, the people Ralph Snyder to design the structure. Construction was DEC 19 1973 Conservation Architecture Commerce Transportation Communications Military Engineering Aboriginal losophy NATIONAL Science itarian REGISTER Literature Education there and county business resumed. Agriculture Putnam County Courthouse is without question the finest Music justice remained there until 1866.
Landscape Sculpture among the citizens of Putnam County to change the location Political Theater unaltered condition and meticulous maintenance on the part SIGNIFICANCE Social/Human- Religion/Phi started in 1912 and the building was completed and occupied Early in the twentieth century the county commissioners Urban Planning voted to change the county seat to Ottawa.A courthouse was built decided to build a new building to give the county needed In 1866 a fire destroyed the county courthouse at Kalida in 1834 as the original county seat for Putnam County. entity in terms of its legal system.Kalida was laid out in 1913.
RECEIVED Pre-Columbian A courthouse was constructed in Kalida, and the seat of Industry of the county should allow it to serve the people of Putnam 16th Century Invention SPECIFIC DATE(S) (If Applicable and Known) built 1912-1913 Beaux Arts county courthouse in Ohio. Its excellent, additional space. along with most county records.There was a movement County for many years. Art AREAS OF SIGNIFICANCE (Check One or More as Appropriate)
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 74001608, 9 pages, held by the National Archives in Record
Group 79. See the
catalogue record.
Listed places nearby
6 within 8 miles
Other National Register properties close
enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both
positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties
to their map sheets.
Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.
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