Caldwell Downtown Historic District

The Caldwell Downtown Historic District is the historic commercial and governmental core of the Village of Caldwell, which was founded in 1857 on farmland owned by Joseph and Samuel Caldwell. Caldwell serves as the county seat of Noble County, the last of Ohio’s 88 counties to be organized. The agricultural community prospered and by 1873 was the second-largest producer of tobacco in Ohio. The Pennsylvania Railroad arrived in 1872, and the development of salt, oil, coal, and natural gas extraction companies followed during the 1880s. Two separate fires in 1897 devastated portions of the north and south quadrants of the district. As a result, Caldwell formed a volunteer fire department and the Village Council introduced legislation prohibiting construction of wood buildings within a block of the public square. (Continued on other side)

[Side B]: (Continued from other side) The Caldwell Downtown Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2020. Centered on the public square and its 1933-1934 WPA Noble County Courthouse the district is bounded by Spruce, West, Bridge, and East Streets. To the east of the Courthouse are the oldest buildings in the district, including the 1870 Tipton’s Hardware building with its decorative shingled cornice. The Columbia Hotel on the southeast corner and Rempe Building on the northeast corner were two of the first buildings constructed after the 1897 fires. The 1895-1896 Mills (IOOF) Building on the northwest corner once housed a showroom for the local mill. The inclusion of the 1936 WPA Post Office and 1957 Caldwell Municipal and Volunteer Fire Building extends the district’s period of significance into the mid-twentieth century.