Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1978. 17 historic map sheets show this location, the earliest from 1904.
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From the record
“The Hildreth Covered Bridge, also known as the "Hills Covered Bridge" or "Lafaber's Mill Bridge," is a historic covered bridge in Washington County, Ohio, United States. Located off State Route 26 in Newport Township, about 5 miles (8.0 km) east of the city of Marietta, the bridge historically carried Hills Bridge Road over the Little Muskingum River.”
Wikipedia article Hildreth Covered Bridge, CC BY-SA 4.0.
one of 39 National Register listings in Washington County · listed in 1978 · category: STRUCTURE · significant for ENGINEERING; TRANSPORTATION · one of 1 National Historic Landmarks in Washington County.
Also known as. Hills Covered Bridge; Lafaber`s Mill Bridge
Township. Marietta city
National Register reference number.78002211- 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.
Then and now
1904 to 1994
The ground this property stands on, surveyed
90 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are
United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.
Tenney, George Champion, age 20, volunteer. May. 1862, three months. Eighty-seventh regiment, company A, private, served four months, mustered out Septem- Ijer, 1862 ; re-enlistment, volunteer. May, 1864, one hundred days. One Hundred and Forty-eighth regiment, company A. corporal, served four months, mustered out 1864, also member of the independent company in Marietta,
Darrow, Allen R., age 38, volunteer. May, 1864, one hundred days. One Hundred and Forty-eighth regiment, first lieutenant and regimental quartermaster, served four months, mustered out in September, 1864, one of the original members of the National guards, organized in Marietta in 1863.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 14 fires within 5 miles of Hildreth Covered Bridge between
1999 and 2019, burning about 5 acres in total. 2 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
Debris and open burning
8
Equipment and vehicle use
2
Natural
2
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
2
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 1,269 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Hildreth Covered Bridge between 1853 and
1975: 1,182 Animalia, 54 Fungi, 31 Plantae, 1 Unrecorded, 1 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by A. D. Selby, A. Drew, A. L. McElhose 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
7 workings within 5 miles of Hildreth Covered Bridge: 4 producers, 2 past producers, 1 plant.
5 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Manganese, Chromium, Iron. 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
Marietta, the town this property stands in, in 68 storm reports between 1993 and 2026: 31 thunderstorm wind, 25 hail, 5 flood, 3 lightning.
The reports record 3 injuries. 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.
A double wide mobile home was destroyed after its roof was blown off. The home was located on Warren Township Road 277. Seven people were in the home at the time, 3 were taken to the hospital with minor injuries and later released. The National Weather Service survey estimated winds of 60 to 70 mph from the microburst.
Numerous large trees were blown down by strong wind gusts. The wind was associated with a bow echo configuration to the thunderstorms. Wind gusts of around 70 mph likely occurred. Several homes and businesses were hit by fallen trees. Residents described the aftermath in the hardest hit portions of downtown Marietta as looking like a war zone.
Rains of 2.5 to 4.5 inches fell in less than 3 hours. The 24 hour rain amount from the cooperative observer at Newport was 4.7 inches. The Marietta cooperative observer had 2.94 inches. Streams such as Long Run and Newell Run flooded and forced a few evacuations. Many residents were stuck in their homes. The Newport fire chief said, We couldn't get to them because they couldn't see the bridges. Basically every direction we went there was rushing water, it looked like a whitewater river.||More urban streams such as Goose Run flooded basements around Marietta.
Thunderstorms moved from east to west crossing the Ohio River from West Virginia. The city of Marietta hauled 130 loads of fallen limbs away over a eight day cleanup period. At least two homes were damaged. A dairy barn was heavily damaged in Warren Township. A tree fell onto a car in Belpre.
Downpours associated with severe thunderstorms overwhelmed the city drainage system, causing brief street flooding. Water got into a few basements. The cooperative observer measured 2.6 inches for its 24 hour rain amount, most of which fell within about 2 hours.
Thunderstorms moved from east to west crossing the Ohio River from West Virginia. The city of Marietta hauled 130 loads of fallen limbs away over a eight day cleanup period. At least two homes were damaged. A dairy barn was heavily damaged in Warren Township. A tree fell onto a car in Belpre.
Thunderstorm winds blew a large section of roofing material off a rehabilitation center. Power lines were also blown down in town, causing power outages.
Thunderstorms moved from east to west crossing the Ohio River from West Virginia. The city of Marietta hauled 130 loads of fallen limbs away over a eight day cleanup period. At least two homes were damaged. A dairy barn was heavily damaged in Warren Township. A tree fell onto a car in Belpre.
A strong rise on the Little Muskingum River occurred. The crest was over 19 feet at the gauge near Bloomfield. Minor overflow along the usual low spots of Route 26 was the result. A few sections of the road were closed.
Trees fell in scattered locations about the town. Two large umbrellas, used to shelter kids from the sun, were ripped from their tables and blew away at the YMCA.
The stream gage on Duck Creek near Whipple showed the creek rose above its 12 foot flood stage late on the 25th. The creek crested at 12.4 feet just before sunrise on the 26th and had returned to its banks by mid morning. This flooded sections of State Routes 26, 145 and 821.
The stream gauge on Duck Creek at Whipple crested just over 12 feet late afternoon on the 18th. Bankfull is 11 feet. Minor flooding occurred along sections of State Routes 26, 146 and 821 in central Washington County.
1 paper published in this town,
digitised by the Library of Congress and free to read: 1,733 issues,
8,183 pages. Every page is searchable, so a name or a street can be
looked for directly in what the town printed about itself at the time.
United States Geological Survey topographic
sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by geocoding the centre of Marietta, because the National Register records a descriptive location rather than a street address, then
testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.
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
The Hildreth Bridge is a 12 panel Howe truss, with a 130' 6" truss length and an base. The steel guard rails of the open wooden appraoch ramps extend several CONDITION DATE XUNALTERED EXCELLENT UNEXPOSED DETERIORATED MOVED stone abutments and piers. truss consists of wooden braces and counterbraces with iron tension rods as popular for both railroad and highway bridges. members was a great innovation in bridge-building and really marked the end CHECK ONE ing the Lt. Muskingum River in Newport Towmship section 36, five miles east of feet inside the bridge.The flooring of the approach ramps is laid crosswise white.The cut-stone abutments and piers are the original foundations. a small roofed window on each side of the bridge.
The structure under consideration is a one span wooden truss covered bridge span- Marietta in Washington County, Ohio. This fine old bridge has vertical, high- The Hildreth Bridge is in good condition.It has a metal roof, parts of which vantages of being able to tighten up the iron tension rods after a few years if of the all-wooden bridge truss.The railroads were quick to recognize the ad- 1l'.The truss has four iron tension rods on the end panels and two of these structure is 17'8#.Height of the trusses is.17' and the overhead clearence is X.GOOD - FAIR LRUINS Howe truss plan patented in 1840 by William Howe of Spencer, Mass. The Howe the bridge bègan to sag.
In just a short time the Howe truss became tremendously The historical name of this bridge is the Hildreth Bridge and is built on the rods on all other panels.The portals are straight and sharply cut back at the the truss verticals.Howe's introduction of the use of iron rods as tension AREAS OF
Statement of significance
one of our most imposing roofed spans. It perches high above the river on Historical 1700-1799 1600-1699 ART BUILDER/ARCHITECT PERIOD COMMERCE RELIGION COMMUNICATIONS POLITICS/GOVERNMENT EDUCATION SIGNIFICANCE CONSERVATION ARCHEOLOGY-PREHISTORIC MILITARY The fact that there are two different building dates given for this bridge ARCHITECTURE 1900- INDUSTRY AGRICULTURE LITERATURE LAW SOCIAL/HUMANITARIAN probably comes from one Stephan Hildreth who owmed the land near the bridge X1800-1899 Inco, this fine old bridge was built in 188l, but another source says the bridge historians and covered bridge buffsas the Hildreth Bridge.The name Hildreth Lt.Muskingum R.in Washington County.We consider the Hildreth Bridge to be several contracts were let for covered bridges over the Lt.
Muskingum R.at different truss type.At one time at least eight covered bridges spanned the X.TRANSPORTATION _EXPLORATION/SETTLEMENT building skills of a now unknown Ohio bridge-builder. XENGINEERING could indicate that this might just not be the first covered bridge on this Muskingum R. today in Washington County, and each of these three spans has a magnificent cut-stone abutments and piers.The height of these piers is The Hildreth Bridge is one of three covered bridges that remain over the Lt. INVENTION _PREHISTORIC century mark.It is a fine example of the Howe truss and a tribute to the short distance from the bridge.
_THEATER _ECONOMICS _PHILOSOPHY -1400-1499 _SCULPTURE -1500-1599 early 1870's or 1881 - MUSIC According to the record books of the Southern Ohio Covered Bridge Assciation, The signa over the portals call this the Hills Bridge, but it is known to site.The Hildreths were a pioneer family in Washington County.The name could have been built as early as /87l or 1872 as county records show that necessary because of the damaging floods which can occur on the Lt.Muskingum that time.Unfortunately, further historical data on this bridge is lacking.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 78002211, 14 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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