Ashtabula County Courthouse Group

Ashtabula County Courthouse Group is a registered historic district in Jefferson, Ohio, listed in the National Register on 1975-06-30.HistoryThe Ashtabula County Courthouse Group is a cluster of buildings built at various times in the history of the county. The center of the district and the oldest building is the 1850 courthouse designed in the popular Italianate style so prevalent in the Victorian era. The courthouse was once the only building in this group, but the increasing population and confined spaces forced the county to develop the area into a judicial and administrative campus.Ashtabula County was settled around 1796 and was part of the Connecticut Western Reserve of the Northwest Territory. The county was officially established by the Ohio General Assembly in 1807 with the county seat located in Jefferson. A courthouse was constructed around the same time and was completed in 1811. The building was two stories high and was a simple brick structure. This building lasted until 1836 when it was razed for the construction of a new courthouse.The second courthouse was designed by architect Willis Smith from Kinsman. The structure is basically the same in appearance as the courthouse still standing. A fire burnt some of the structure in 1850 and it was rebuilt mostly true to the original design, although the dormers piercing the roofline were removed. It was around this time that the row house known as Lawyers Row was built.