Covering all the bases at the Wood County Courthouse
Wood County Court House
Built with a matching jail, the Wood County Court House was designed by Yost and Packard of Columbus Ohio and built in 1893. On the National Historic Register, the structure is cherished by the community.
W.R. Meyers Co’s relationship with this courthouse spans 40 years, beginning in 1978. This long-term care and maintenance of the structure gives us a deep understanding of the building and its idiosyncrasies, a knowledge that has helped us to discover problems early, pinpoint drivers in complex issues, and troubleshoot with more efficiency. During our many years working on this building we’ve restored and maintained the stone, copper and tile of the exterior and interior, as well as addressed structural and safety issues. Major projects include a 1981 steeple and clock restoration inside and out, a 1985 chimney rebuild, a 1990 tower removal, lighting of the clock tower in 1995, structural shoring of the east and west dormers in 2004 and additional work over the skylights.
"When I first started working in the courthouse in 1978 there were muzzle loaders in the steeple and all of the county communications were based in and on the building. There was a complete civil defense facility in the basement… Its amazing to see the complete transformation of this structure and how important it still remains in the community" — Bill Meyers
One particularly interesting project was the jail renovation, that was completed in the 1980’s. Our millwright and machinist friend, Ron Smith, assisted us in renovating the jail lock-up systems, originally built around the 1890’s. New jail regulations in the state of Ohio required greater privacy and security for inmates. After much work the entire system was operational again and new fire escape doors and windows were installed without altering the exterior of the building.
Our work isn’t always pretty, but we’re glad to do the dirty jobs in order to keep buildings like the Wood County Court House in great shape for years to come. One fascinating element of our work on this building was the long hours we put into eradicating and cleaning up from decades of a pigeon infestation. We removed the final bucket of pigeon droppings and sealed off the building completely to keep it clean of health hazards and free of unwanted inhabitants. Interestingly, one factor that’s helped us in this effort was the installation of perigrine falcons on the roof, who do a great job of keeping the pigeons away, but also create their own challenges. We love nature and seeing those falcons up close is pretty fascinating.
We were able to really shine a light on the beauty of the building when we were hired to create a beautiful nighttime look for the courthouse. Working with temporary lighting, we iterated on the placement and intensity of the lighting in order to create just the right look. Art glass from Australia and decorative lights around the clock faces were a key step in this phase.
The nighttime visuals of the courthouse were very important to the commissioners. We also re-designed the clock hands multiple times to make the clock face read-able from a set distance at night. We’d leave each variation for a few days so that the commissioners and staff could get a sense of which version was most effective.
One last touch was installing fabulous gas lights on the magnificent front porch of the court house. The considerable weight of the lights required intensive engineering to ensure reliability and safety in the face of wind or other weather threats. We ran a gas line into the lights, installing and testing along the process, and then reinforcing the structures with concrete to ensure there wouldn’t be too much pressure for the gas lines, yet great stability to last decades to come.
From decorative and structural to extremely functional needs, we do it all. In 2005 we installed rigid conduit and fiber optics throughout the courthouse to allow for security and internet functionality.