Paulding, Ohio

Paulding is a village in and the county seat of Paulding County, Ohio, United States. It is located predominantly in Paulding Township. The population was 3,605 at the 2010 census.

History

Paulding was a planned community, founded in 1848 at the center of the county, and named after the county by speculators who expected to profit by moving the county seat. In 1851, the county seat was moved from Charloe, which had been the county seat for a decade; prior to that, court was held at New Rochester.

The town square is devoted to the courthouse, an orange brick structure surrounded by trees upon a spacious lawn. In the centennial year of 1876, the county commissioners determined to build a new courthouse, and visited many courthouses, finally deciding to erect a duplicate of the courthouse in Adrian, Michigan at a cost of $40,000. The courthouse was finished in 1886.

Built in the 1910s, the Paulding County Carnegie Library was the first Carnegie library to serve an entire county instead of a single city.