Old Mahoning County Courthouse

Mahoning County was created in 1846 from townships in southern Trumbull and northern Columbiana counties, and Canfield won competition from nearby communities to become the county seat because of its central location and the political influence of Judge Eben Newton and Elisha Whittlesey, Esquire, Comptroller of the United States Treasury from 1849-1857. To secure the county seat, Ohio required a suitable lot and $5,000 toward public buildings, and Judge Newton donated the land and led the subscription of the required bond. Construction then moved quickly on the Classical Revival courthouse, completed in June 1848. An Italianate west wing was added in 1862, but the building's governmental role was later challenged when Youngstown renewed its bid for the county seat in the early 1870s. Canfield hired future president James A. Garfield to defend its position in the United States Supreme Court, but the Court's 1876 decision favored Youngstown, ending Canfield's time as the seat of Mahoning Valley government. After the records were moved to Youngstown, the property reverted to Judge Newton, who donated it for educational use. For more than four decades, the former courthouse housed private and public schools until a 1923 public auction by the Canfield Village Board of Education disposed of the building. In private ownership afterward, it housed various commercial enterprises and briefly served again as a County District Court. Exterior restoration in the 1960s and reconstruction of the missing bell tower helped restore the building, which was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

Canfield, Ohio · United States