Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1898-12-10
Nolw Court House.

NOW O0uTl tlUuSt'
'VSfen 1t was proposed to place the
county buildings on the park space ia
miliarly known as the ice harbor lot,
/ It seemed to meet with general ap-
proval. 1t was centrally located and
easy Of access, not only to the people
from the country, but also to the busi-
ness men and lawyers who might have
business there. 1t was space OF
ground on which the city had fondly
hoped to see a government building
placed and no whisper had ever been
heard against the site either on ac-
count Of high water or difficulty of
getting good foundations for the walls.
No indeed. Up to few days ago II
was the beau ideal of place for any
kind of a public building. What is
the matter now? Has the site become
suddenly no good and out of question?
We think not. 1t seems that the peo-
ple who are opposed to this location
have had their innings, tnat's all.
Wait until you hear from the people
who are in favor of having the county
Offices where they will be easily acces-
sible. where this large building will
have plenty Of room and be free from
noise and dust.
The horrible high water, to be sure;
it comes once in generation and
then the awfully treacherous bed of
clay, why it is only forty feet thick,
and then there is bed of gravel. Just
think of that And the men who built
the Union Depot and other large build
ings in Marietta never thought of
what they were doing building on such
shallow strata of things. Why they
ought 70 have bought an auger and
bored down and found out how thick
that bed OF clay was, but they were too
short-sighted and went recklessly and
put up these immense structures with
out borrowing any trouble about so
momentous matter as the thickness
of the bed of clay above mentioned.
And mere they stand. 1t may be that
the earth is about to drop suddenly
from under them, but up to the pres
ent writing nothing of the kind has
shown itself.
Hn much do you suppose that park
spS Is worth in money if it were pos
sibfe Sell it at its true market val
ue? 1N66 a cent less than 100000 per
front foot II the county should ask
for 300 Frontage, which would
give the bdHalngs free space of 300
by 300 feet, 1t would be valued at fifty
thousand dollars at least That is the
City of Marietta would donate to the
county of Washington that much for
Court House purposes. This would
enable the county to SELL both of the
present sites where the old court
house now stands and where the Jail
stands and these two pieces of ground
woulG bring at least $50,000.O0, which
could be applied to increase the build
ing fund which would then amount to
S175, 100000, not cent more than the
county OF Washington ought to put in
TO a modern court house, Jail and sher-
IFS house. Then the sites vacated by
the old court house and Jail would be
built over with fine business blocks,
hotels, ETC., and would go onto the tax
duplicate and help pay for the new
structures. Now would this not be a
good financial move? The county get
ting fair and central and roomy site
for the new builL.ngs free, getting
$50, 900 in cash and incidentally adding
thousands of dollars to the tax dupli-
cate that are now not subject to taxa
tion because public property. We
want to be careful to keep the public
good always in view and not allow
private interests to get to pulling and
hauling in order to enhance the value
of this or that property by the loca-
tion.