Pomeroy Historic District

Pomeroy's historic district occupies a narrow strip of land between high stone cliffs and the Ohio River in Meigs County, Ohio. Its focal point is the county courthouse, built 1845-1848 to a Federal-style design by S.S. Bergin and later enlarged with wings, a stone stairway, a portico and a round cupola. Around it stand two- and three-story brick commercial buildings, largely from the later nineteenth century, with bracketed cornices, hoodmolds, iron balconies and dated parapets such as those marked 1885 and 1891. The Meigs Inn adds a conical-roofed corner turret. Pomeroy grew rich on coal and salt, shipping coal down the river, and that money financed the commercial blocks. When the coal and salt trades faded and steamboats declined, building stopped, so the downtown changed little over the following eight decades. Upper stories keep their Italianate detail, while ground-floor storefronts have been altered. Later brick buildings fill gaps left by fire and demolition without disrupting the street's rhythm.