Chunks of the sandstone facade over the years have fallen off the building, which took three and a half years to construct once its cornerstone was laid in 1885. The Historic Butler County Courthouse Restoration Committee, which had been dormant for several years due to the lack of funding, restarted earlier this year, and its goal is to restore the iconic building to is former glory. The top three projects could cost as much as $500,000.
“When they think of Hamilton and Butler County, they think of the courthouse,” said Butler County Common Pleas Judge Michael Sage, a former chairman of the courthouse restoration committee in the mid and late 1990s. “It is a symbol of this community of justice.”
What’s there now
The courthouse is often quiet. People either go to the courthouse for Area II Court on the bottom level or Probate Court — or probate court records — on the second level.
Much of the space was vacated when the Government Services Center was built in 1999, but the first wave of offices that left was in the late 1970s and early 1980s when the Butler County Administration Center was built across High Street.
Probate Judge Randy Rogers said occasionally the building will have visitors to the county who come just to look around. There are many historical artifacts on the second floor that help tell the story of the building, such as the 1912 fire or the 1913 flood.
Eventually, Rogers wants to see the courthouse again a hub of the community, as it had been for decades.
This restoration effort is important for Rogers.
It’s personal for him, but it’s also because this is a landmark building — it’s the focal point of the county’s logo. It’s been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1981.
“We truly believe that this courthouse is a treasure,” said Rogers, chairman of the Historic Butler County Courthouse Restoration Committee. “It’s a community treasure and needs to be preserved.”
The Butler County Commission office, which formed the committee in early 1990s, is working to help in restoring the building. Commissioner Cindy Carpenter — who Rogers calls a “driving force” in the recent committee efforts — said this building doesn’t just represent justice, it also represents a growing community and community pride.
“We know it’s an iconic building and we don’t want it to fall into shambles,” said Carpenter. “We want to energize the next generation to care about it.”
What’s needed
Rogers will present to the county commissioners a request to rehabilitate the skylight in the courthouse’s rotunda. It’s projected to cost $58,000.
“One of the problems is it’s an antiquated lighting system,” Rogers said. “There’s a lot of danger just to change the lights.”
The lighting system was installed about 40 years ago, Rogers said, but the supporting structure “is in pretty good shape.”
The two other immediate projects needing to be addressed are the facade and steps. Each project is expected to cost around $200,000 and both are under further review, according to minutes from June’s restoration committee meeting.
Coon Restoration — at no cost — spent two and a half days inspecting the sandstone facade to determine the damage and needed repairs, Rogers said.
The minutes state the exterior steps on all four sides of the courthouse are “an eyesore” and unusable. They were shut down because of the uncertainty of the load capacity.
“Earlier attempts at preservation ... have probably made things worse,” according to the minutes about the steps.
Funding for the projects will come from public coffers as well as private donations. Fundraising will be assisted with the newly formed Courthouse Historical Society — which was 10 years in the making and is directly modeled after the U.S. Supreme Court Historical Society.
“The creation of the Courthouse Historical Society and its recognition as a public charity is just another chapter in the history of this venerable building,” Rogers said.
1990s restoration
The Historic Butler County Courthouse Restoration Committee was started by the county commissioners in 1993 “for the purpose of addressing the restoration” of the courthouse, according to a fact-finding document provided by Sage. The judge said the plan was to restore the courthouse in three phases, but only two of the three phases were completed.
The exterior stone work and historically significant windows (they were one of the few first windows of that width and length) were restored. The third phase was the restoration of the interior of the courthouse.
“What happened was when the commissioners decided to go ahead and build the new Government Services Center, they did not have enough money at that point to do the restoration of the interior of the courthouse,” Sage said.
The interior of the courthouse was remodeled in the late 1970s, forming many of the now vacated offices, he said.
Construction
On Feb. 4, 1889, the four-story neo-Renaissance building was open for business.
Ohio’s General Assembly approved funding for the county’s courthouse on Jan. 28, 1885.
The building’s cornerstone was set on Oct. 29, 1885. The building designed by David W. Gibbs was opened for business on Feb. 4, 1889. It cost $305,000, which with inflation equals more than $7.3 million.
“And I guarantee you can’t build that building for $7.3 million,” Sage said, citing the craftsmanship would be expensive to duplicate.
Rogers agreed, especially with all the butternut walnut used throughout the building. He said it’s difficult to find the once-abundant tree around here.
“Some of the workmanship in this building is irreplaceable,” Rogers said. “All this was hand done, hand milled and probably all on site.”
Exodus
Until the mid-1970s, almost every aspect of county business was down at the courthouse.
When the commissioners authorized the construction of the Butler County Administration Center at 130 High St., that moved all non-court related offices to vacate the courthouse.
The building was dedicated on Dec. 5, 1976.
Then in 1999, everything but the probate court left for the then-new Government Services Center at 315 High St.
But in its heyday, the courthouse was the hub of the community. For records, court proceedings, commissioner meetings, auditor needs , people went to the courthouse at 101 High St. Until the 1960s, church services were held on Sunday.
“You were able to come in through all four doors,” said Pete Mengel, employee at the courthouse and member of the Historic Butler County Courthouse Restoration Committee.
Area II Court moved into the then-vacated building about a decade ago, Rogers said.
Weathering time
Rogers said the courthouse “has had a very important role in the history in this community and in Ohio.”
It has survived two fires, a flood and a robbery.
The first of the two fires was in the late morning on March 14, 1912, according to courthouse records. Apparently crossed electrical wires caused the fire that claimed the lives of three firefighters — John Hunker, William Love and George Fritz.
According to the Butler County Historical Society, the dome of the courthouse fell 13 minutes after the alarm was sent at 11:30 a.m.
A smaller dome was rebuilt, but the courthouse caught fire when lightning struck it. The dome was repaired.
In late March 1913, the flood of the Great Miami River that led to the creation of the Miami Conservancy District stretched into downtown Hamilton, according to historian Jim Blount. More than 200 people died on the first day of the flood and the courthouse became a morgue for 10 days.
“Bodies, many of them without identification, were hauled to the courthouse lawn. Most of the mortuary work was done in the courthouse assembly room, where commissioners normally met,” Blount wrote.
On Jan. 25, 1926, five men surprised a night watchman and a late-working chief deputy treasurer.
They displayed shotguns and pistols, according to Blount.
The men stole more than $20,000 — mostly in non-negotiable checks — from the treasurer’s office and were never caught.
Court cases
Decisions from the Butler County Courthouse had sent seven men to the electric chair between 1904 and 1948, according to Blount. He also wrote that in June 1885, at the start of construction of the building, Butler County had its last hanging.
Arguably the most infamous trial at the courthouse was of convicted mass murderer James Ruppert.
The now 77-year-old Ruppert was convicted of killing 11 members of his family in their Lindenwald home on Easter Sunday 1975.
Ruppert was convicted of two of the murders and sentenced to 11 life sentences, according to newspaper reports.
Ruppert is currently in the Allen Correctional Institute in Lima.
He shot and killed his mother, Charity Ruppert, 65; brother and sister-in-law, Leonard and Alma Ruppert, 42 and 38; and the couple’s eight children, who ranged in age from 4 to 17.
Ruppert’s next parole hearing is in April 2015. The parole board denied Ruppert a release from prison in June 2005.
In 1903, Albert Knapp was convicted of strangling his third wife in Hamilton and dumping her body in the Great Miami River in the previous year, according to Blount. Knapp also admitted to killing four other women in Cincinnati and Indianapolis, including his first wife.
Blount also wrote Charles King was convicted in 1930 of killing his wife and four children.
They died in 1929 from inhaling carbon dioxide in their Hamilton home after King turned on gas in the house while the five victims and another child, who survived, were sleeping.
Blount wrote Knapp and King were among the seven men executed in the electric chair.
In 1948, Marie Abbott and Cyril “Scotty” Gordon were charged with the Memorial Day death of Morris R. Abbott, a Reily Twp. farmer, Blount said.
Then-county Prosecutor Paul A. Baden said Abbott’s bludgeoned body was placed on nearby railroad tracks to make the death appear to be an accident.
The 1948 trial for Abbott and 1950 trial for Gordon attracted large, standing room only crowds during the trial, Blount wrote. Defense attorney William F. “Foss” Hopkins represented the widow and Common Pleas Court Judge Fred B. Cramer presided on the bench.
Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2175 or mpitman@coxohio.com. Follow at
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