Piketon Historic District

Piketon is a small Ohio village on the Scioto River that served as the first seat of Pike County. Commissioners chose the site in 1815 and named it for Zebulon Pike, and the town was laid out in a regular grid. Surviving buildings include the Opera House, now municipal offices, an ashlar jail, the Robert Lucas store, the Rupert Inn and an 1854 Methodist church. Most houses date from 1820 to 1835 and range from clapboarded log to vernacular Greek Revival, with small three-bay cottages and five-bay frame and brick houses. The town is best known for losing its county seat to Waverly. A canal routed away from the village, a courthouse fire in 1844, and a costly campaign led by James Emmitt ended in a 1861 referendum, after which Piketon declined. Because later traffic bypassed it, much of the pre-Civil War streetscape and its interiors survive little altered.