The Franklin County Government Center is a government complex of Franklin County, Ohio in the city of Columbus. The government center has included several iterations of the Franklin County Courthouse, including a building completed in 1840 and another completed in 1887. Current courthouse functions are spread out between buildings in the complex.
The site at the southwest corner of High and Mound streets was at one time occupied by St. Paul's Church, a German Lutheran Church.
The tallest building in the complex is the 27-floor, 464-foot (141 m) Franklin County Courthouse at 373 South High Street. It is the seventh tallest building in Columbus. This was the third incarnation of the Franklin County Courthouse and hosts the majority of the county government agencies. It was designed by architectural firm DesignGroup, Inc. following the postmodern architectural style. It was built on the site of a publishing building used for decades by the county, the American Education Press Building. Since 2022, its 16th floor has hosted a cafeteria-style restaurant called Cafe Overlook, which has a panoramic view of Downtown Columbus. [1]
Other major buildings in the complex include the 19-floor Municipal Court at 375 South High Street and the 10-floor Hall of Justice at 369 South High Street, both designed by Prindle & Patrick. The seven-floor new Franklin County Common Pleas Courthouse at 345 South High Street was completed in 2010. [2]
The Hall of Justice at 369 South High Street began a two-year renovation in early 2013.
Other facilities in the complex include:
A large cast of Henry Moore's Oval with Points , originally installed in Dorrian Commons Park, [3] was moved across High Street in 2014 to the plaza of the newly-remodeled Hall of Justice. [4] The 1974 statue of Benjamin Franklin was then moved from the plaza to an interior lobby in the courthouse.
A courthouse or court house is a building that is home to a local court of law and often the regional county government as well, although this is not the case in some larger cities. The term is common in North America. In most other English-speaking countries, buildings which house courts of law are simply called "courts" or "court buildings". In most of continental Europe and former non-English-speaking European colonies, the equivalent term is a palace of justice.
Franklinton is a neighborhood in Columbus, Ohio, just west of its downtown. Settled in 1797, Franklinton is the first American settlement in Franklin County, and was the county seat until 1824. As the city of Columbus grew, the city annexed and incorporated the existing settlement in 1859. Franklinton is bordered by the Scioto River on the north and east, Harmon Avenue on the east, Stimmel Road and Greenlawn Avenue on the south, and Interstate 70 on the west. Its main thoroughfare is West Broad Street, one of the city's two main roads.
Downtown Columbus is the central business district of Columbus, Ohio. Downtown is centered on the intersection of Broad and High Streets, and encompasses all of the area inside the Inner Belt. Downtown is home to most of the tallest buildings in Columbus.
The Belmont County Courthouse is located at 101 West Main Street in St. Clairsville, Ohio, United States. It sits on the highest point in the St. Clairsville area and is thus visible from Interstate 70 and many other points in the Ohio Valley. It is a contributing property in the St. Clairsville Historic District, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1969.
The Cuyahoga County Courthouse stretches along Lakeside Avenue at the north end of the Cleveland Mall in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. The building was listed on the National Register along with the mall district in 1975. Other notable buildings of the Group Plan are the Howard M. Metzenbaum U.S. Courthouse designed by Arnold Brunner, the Cleveland Public Library, the Board of Education Building, Cleveland City Hall, and Public Auditorium.
The Darke County Courthouse, Sheriff's House and Jail are three historic buildings located at 504 South Broadway just south of West 4th Street in Greenville, Ohio. On December 12, 1976, the three buildings of the present courthouse complex were added to the National Register of Historic Places.
The Fairfield County Courthouse is located at 224 East Main Street in Lancaster, Ohio. The courthouse is the second for the county.
SMBH, Inc. is a full-service structural engineering firm located in Columbus, Ohio. Providing structural engineering services for architects, contractors and building owners, SMBH, Inc. has experience designing educational facilities, medical centers, courthouses and commercial and residential buildings. Since 1972, SMBH, Inc. has served the architectural and construction communities in Ohio and surrounding states. SMBH, Inc. has worked with architectural firms such as Graham Gund's Gund Partnership, Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects, Peter Eisenman, and Robert A.M. Stern.
The Holmes County Courthouse is a historic government building in Millersburg, Ohio, United States. Built in the late nineteenth century, it has been designated a historic site because of its architectural importance.
Prindle, Patrick and Associates was an architectural firm founded by architect Theodore Hord Prindle in 1957 as Titus & Prindle. The firm designed a wide range of buildings, but specialized in jails, prisons, and other correctional facilities. Its most notable projects include the Municipal Court, Hall of Justice, jail, and courthouse annex at the Franklin County Government Center in Columbus, Ohio, and the courthouse, jail, and county sheriff headquarters at the Justice Center Complex in Cleveland, Ohio. The firm dissolved in 1991.
Dorrian Commons Park was a park and part of the Franklin County Government Center in downtown Columbus, Ohio, United States. The park opened in 1976 on the site of the first and second Franklin County Courthouse, built in 1887. Dorrian Commons closed in 2018, pending construction of a new courthouse.
The Columbus Civic Center is a civic center, a collection of government buildings, museums, and open park space in Downtown Columbus, Ohio. The site is located along the Scioto Mile recreation area and historically was directly on the banks of the Scioto River.
Benjamin Franklin, a 1974 bronze statue of Benjamin Franklin, stands inside the Franklin County Government Center in Columbus, Ohio. The statue was created by James P. Anderson and cast in Pietrasanta, Italy.
The 1887 Franklin County Courthouse was the second permanent courthouse of Franklin County, Ohio. The building, located in the county seat of Columbus, stood from 1887 to 1974. It replaced a smaller courthouse on the site, extant from 1840 to c. 1884. The 1887 courthouse deteriorated over several decades, and the site was eventually replaced with Dorrian Commons Park, open from 1976 to 2018; the court moved to a new building nearby. As of 2020, the site is planned to once again hold the county's Municipal Court building.
MKSK is an American landscape architecture and urban design firm. The company is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio.
The 1840 Franklin County Courthouse was the first permanent courthouse of Franklin County, Ohio in the United States. The building, located in the county seat of Columbus, stood from 1840 to 1884. The building was replaced with another county courthouse in 1887, and after its demise, that courthouse was replaced with Dorrian Commons Park, open from 1976 to 2018; the courthouse moved to a new building nearby. The site is now planned to host the Franklin County Municipal Court.
The American Education Press Building was an office and industrial building in Downtown Columbus, Ohio. It was designed by Richards, McCarty & Bulford in the Streamline Moderne style, with rounded corners, a flat roof, and its exterior and interior walls predominantly made from glass blocks, a new innovation in the 1930s.
The Franklin County Jail was a county jail building in Columbus, Ohio, administered by the Franklin County government. The building opened in 1889 and was in use until August 1971. At that time, the jail was moved to a new facility, part of the Franklin County Government Center. The 1889 structure was demolished two months later.
 City of Columbus, Ohio | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Topics |  | ||||||
| Neighborhoods | |||||||
| Enclaves | |||||||
| History |
| ||||||
| Attractions | |||||||
| Government |
| ||||||
| Education |
| ||||||
| Transportation |
| ||||||
| Sports |
| ||||||
| Museums |
| ||||||
| |||||||
