When most normal people visit a place, they look for the amusement park and the kids museum. I look for places like the courthouse, the library and for how people live. Government buildings are rarely open when I’m out adventuring on weekends so it was a treat to be out looking at things in Marietta, Ohio Friday.
The Washington County Courthouse has long fascinated me because I had heard that the decor includes swastikas and I wanted to see for myself.
The modern eye views it as a swastika but that’s not quite true. The symbol is actually part of an Indian motif carried out through tile work in the building. It’s called a sauwistika, and represents balance and good fortune in life. It is different from the swastika because it’s left facing rather than right.
Much like a four leaf clover, this symbol was once associated with good fortune and was commonly used in sports uniforms before the Nazis hijacked it.
Built at the corner of Putnam and Second streets in 1901, this imposing stone building with a clock tower is an important part of Marietta’s historic downtown.
It was designed and constructed by Samuel Hannaford and Sons of Cincinnati. A skylight in the rotunda sends sunlight glimmering throughout the center of the building all the way to the ground floor.
This bell was created by the Verdin Company of Cincinnati during the state’s Bicentennial celebration and is kept in the second floor. Verdin cast a commemorative bell for each of Ohio’s 88 counties using a mobile foundry.
There are other memorials including this one dedicated to the local me list in World War I. Each soldier is memorialized with a framed picture and place of death.
My favorite spot in the building was the courtroom. When I went through security, I made friends with the guard who told me to try to get a glimpse inside the courtroom. So I stopped by the Clerk of Courts office and they let me inside. It felt like stepping back in time a hundred years. It smells old, the light feels like it comes from another time and the room is simply gorgeous.
The entire building feels like a special place to be.
Modern government centers are patched together in old shopping centers and glorified pole barns that have no character or sense of reverence. People used to dress up to conduct their business because it was a special occasion to enter such magnificent spaces as our old courthouses. This building has an air of importance and character that you simply don’t find in many places these days.
I’m so glad I got to see inside. If you go, you do have to go through security so be sure to not carry with you anything inappropriate. Go see it for yourself and be sure to study all the historic pictures throughout the building.