Court house history
The First Court House.
The first court house had two stories. On the first floor was the court room. It had four huge fireplaces which must have made people comofortable, at least in the later part of the day. Pioneer homes were never warm in the morning and pioneer faces and backs; warm at the same time. The second story was divided into several rooms and was reached by an outside stairway. The building was completed in 1811, the outside stairway was covered in 1825, and the building was in use twenty-five years.
The second Courthouse
The historic Ashtabula County Courthouse was built in 1837 and enlarged in 1891.
Designed by architect Willis Smith, the building is constructed predominantly of sandstone and features Zen fashionable Victorian gothic style architecture. The courthouse, which is no longer in use, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.
Present Courthouse
The current Ashtabula County Courthouse, built in 1960, was designed by the architectural firm Kujala and Koski. The building, located at 25 West Jefferson St. in the county seat of Jefferson, houses the Ashtabula County Court of Common Pleas and its juvenile and probate divisions. The two-story courthouse is constructed of glass and masonry stone.