Architect Joseph Warren Yost in Ohio, 1870-1899: his early designs…and a selection of those that followed.
PLEASE NOTE: The blog contains quite a few pictures so give it several minutes to download. They download haphazardly.
Joseph Warren Yost was a prominent early Ohio architect who achieved a national reputation. Born in 1847, Warren (as he was called) was one of eleven children born to Joel and Nancy Yost and was raised on a farm bordering the Ohio River just north of Clarington in Monroe County.
In 1864, Warren Yost briefly enrolled in a seminary located at Harlem Springs of Carroll County. (The seminary eventually relocated to Scio in Harrison County and was renamed Scio College. Yost would later design a building for the school.) In 1866, Yost enrolled at Mount Union College in Alliance of Stark County and left in 1868 after his junior year. From there, he established residence in Bellaire of Belmont County. Following a brief period doing carpentry jobs, Yost opened an architecture practice in 1870. He was largely a self-taught architect/engineer, and he quickly established a reputation. Courthouses, schools, children’s homes and jails were among his most significant builds. The 1880’s were the golden age of courthouse construction in Ohio…and all of Warren Yost’s striking designs are still in use in these counties/cities: Belmont (Saint Clairsville), Guernsey (Cambridge), Harrison (Cadiz), Holmes (Millersburg), Miami (Troy) and Perry (New Lexington).
Yost married Anna Trevana Wetherald of Bellaire in 1872. They had four children: Benjamin, Mary Alma, Nancy, and a son who died in infancy. Ten years later, Yost relocated his family and architecture practice to Columbus which was booming. Churches and houses in the downtown and its near east and near north sides were added to his portfolio as well as other structures. Yost gained a national reputation speaking and writing about architecture. He organized the Association of Ohio Architects which today is part of the American Institute of Architects.
In 1892, Yost formed a partnership with Frank Lucius Packard who was just three years out of school and already well established. The firm of Yost & Packard was large, employed many draftsmen, and was prolific in its output. It may be the best known of early Columbus architectural firms. Yost and Packard teamed to add two more still-in-use Ohio county courthouses to Yost’s resume: Wyandot (Upper Sandusky) and Wood (Bowling Green).
In 1900, Warren Yost moved to New York City and teamed with Albert Frederick D’Oench to co-found D’Oench & Yost. (Frank Packard continued to practice architecture until his unexpected passing in 1923). This blog is concentrated on Ohio so Yost’s West Virginia designs during his Bellaire years and his New York designs (large office buildings) are not included here. Though no longer based in Ohio, Yost continued design work here including Edwards Gymnasium (1905) and Sanborn Hall (1909) at Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware. In 1907, Mount Union awarded him a Masters degree that “was not honorary but conferred from merit” as published in a Mount Union College Bulletin of late 1923. D’Oench passed away from the lingering effects of stroke in 1918. Yost continued the practice, but eventually retired to his daughter’s residence in Avalon, Pennsylvania, where he passed away in November of 1923. Packard died unexpectedly of a stroke the previous month. All three architects have Wikipedia pages.
The primary source of Warren Yost’s designs is the hardbound promotional publication Portfolio of Architectural Realities produced by Yost & Packard circa 1898. It includes designs dating back to the 1870 beginning of Yost’s career and is probably far from inclusive. The Columbus Dispatch has been digitized and some additional designs were found by scouring this source, but a regular real estate news column listing the works in progress by all Columbus architects did not begin appearing in the newspaper until the 1890’s. There are Yost Ohio designs still to be discovered (by luck at this point) from his pre-Columbus years and his Columbus years. Bryden Road just east of downtown Columbus very likely has Yost residential designs…and that street is largely intact and with great architecture (including Yost’s own stunning house).
This blog is divided into two parts: (1) as much history as could be found of Joseph Warren Yost’s life and career prior to the move to Columbus in 1882 and (2) a pictorial of his Ohio designs that still stand. These are designs that were found to be in his name only (no other architect name attached). Historical pictures and other data of the designs are in my other blogs arranged by county.
I would like to thank the following individuals for their assistance in contributing to this blog: Taylor Abbott, Monroe County Treasurer; Susan Adams, Harrison County historian; Steven Flower, 3x great-grandson of Joseph Warren Yost; Myla Ford, Library Assistant, Bellaire Public Library; Trish Caldwell Landsittel, Southeast Ohio historian; Erin Rothenbuehler, Director, Bellaire Public Library; Cathryn Stanley, Curator, Belmont County Heritage Museum; Jim Tarbet, Bellaire historian; Alan Zahorsky, Reference/Instruction Librarian, University of Mount Union.
Published September 2023. Don Foster
Photo credit: 3x great-grandson Steven Flower.
Roots: Clarington, Monroe County, Ohio.
This blog starts with Joseph Warren Yost’s designs in Belmont County where he began his architecture career and in the county of his roots, Monroe.The farm of Joel and Mary Yost and their 11 children was located a few miles north of Clarington in Salem Township. Photo credit: Steven Flower.Warren Yost standing, parents seated in front of him. Seated in the bold plaid dress is Yost’s daughter Mary Alma. His son Benjamin and daughter Nancy are sitting on the ground. The lady behind Nancy is unidentified and thought to perhaps be a nanny.Photo credit: Steven Flower.Yost, likely taken at the farm. Photo credit: Steven Flower.
If Yost were to return to Clarington today, he would still recognize a portion of the village.The same scene today. The gray structure on the left is the same as the one pictured above it (also shown below circled in green). The structure next to it is gone, but the next block on the left is still in tact (shown below circled in purple followed by two current pictures of the structures in that block). The frame structures across the street in the old picture above have been razed and replaced. When State Route 7 was widened to four lanes, the many Clarington structures that lined the Ohio River, such as these above, were razed.State Route 7 paralleling the Ohio River in Monroe County looked like originally.Clarington at its peak long ago.
Clarington was a busy port on the Ohio River and a noted for steamboats built there.
Per Taylor Abbott, Treasurer of Monroe County (and a steamboat historian): “Today, the former Yost farm is part of property that is owned by the State of Ohio and some of it by QUARTO Mining. All of it is permissible and accessible for hiking, albeit, experienced hikers who can handle steep terrain as there are no paths other than those carved out by deer.” Taylor’s Schnauzer Juniper thinking this is as far as I go.
The Clarington Church of Christ was saved from demolition by Taylor and Alexandra Abbott. Built in 1906. Now their home, below.
Career begins. Monroe and Belmont Counties, Ohio.
The Monroe County Courthouse in Woodsfield was destroyed by fire and a replacement was constructed in 1868/69. Note the references at the end of each of these two articles that appeared in the local Spirit of Democracy newspaper at that time. Yost would have been age 21…and thus his career in the building industry began with hands-on carpentry work. Photo credit: Trish Caldwell Landsittel.In 1872, Warren married Anna Trevana Wetherald of Bellaire, Belmont County. Anna was an artist. Perhaps the background of this self-portrait is the farm of Yost’s parents. Photo credit: Steven Flower.Barnesville, Belmont County: City Hall. 132 North Arch Street. Built 1879. Included two bays for fire equipment, jail, and caretaker’s residence. Photo credit: Barnesville’s 200 Years, A Pictorial History.Today the building houses city administrative offices and the police.Barnesville: Public School. Built 1879. Church Street. Razed. Photo credit: Barnesville’s 200 Years, A Pictorial History.
Saint Clairsville Belmont Chronicle 12/12/1878.
Barnesville: The People’s National Bank. 124 East Main Street. Built 1883. Photo credit: Barnesville’s 200 Years, A Pictorial History.Today, UGH to both the front and back.St. Clairsville Belmont Chronicle 3/20/1884. Sounds like more Yost to discover in downtown Barnesville. No clue yet as to where these were…and hope still are.Bellaire, Belmont County: First National Bank. Belmont Street at 32nd Sreet. Built 1880. Banners, flags, etc. are for the Free Fall Days Festival. Photo courtesy of the Bellaire Public Library.St. Clairsville Belmont Chronicle 1/29/1880.George W. Yost, Warren’s brother, was president of the bank.First National Bank on the right. On the left across the street is First Presbyterian Church designed by Yost (more on that later). Photo courtesy of the Bellaire Public Library.Bellaire: Hotel Windsor. Union Street at Central Avenue (renamed 34th Street). Built 1875. Razed. Photo courtesy of the Bellaire Public Library.St. Clairsville Belmont Chronicle 11/19/1874. Water Street is an error.Hotel Windsor facing the Ohio River. Photo courtesy above: Bellaire Public Library; below: Facebook page of My Hometown Bellaire Ohio.Bellaire: I.O.O.F. Lodge #378 (the long building directly above “33rd and Belmont”). Built 1890. First two floors housed businesses, and the lodge occupied the third floor. Photo courtesy of the Bellaire Public Library.The original look compared to the remuddle, second picture below. Ugh. The building on the right is now an empty lot. Photo credit: Facebook page “I Remember Growing Up in Bellaire When……”Photo credit: Facebook page of My Hometown Bellaire Ohio.The former I.O.O.F. building as it looks today, above and below.
Last paragraph identies Yost as architect. St. Clairesville Gazette 5/1/1890.Bellaire: Columbia Theatre and Opera House. 33rd Street between Guernsey and Hamilton Streets. Built 1899. Destroyed by fire. Photo courtesy of the Bellaire Public Library.The Columbus Dispatch 11/18/1899. It’s likely Yost designed the Columbia as one of his last projects before relocating to New York City in 1900. Packard likely saw the project to completion.Bellaire: First Presbyterian Church. Belmont Street between 32nd Street and 33rd Street. Built 1871. This was likely the very first church designed by Yost as his architecture practice had just opened the year before. Razed.Photo courtesy of the Bellaire Public Library.This structure replaced First Presbyterian Church. Photo credit: Facbook page of My Hometown Bellaire Ohio.Bellaire: Second Presbyterian Church. Noble Street at 43rd Street. Built late 1870’s. Razed and replaced by another building (not designed by Yost) that was later occupied by Trinity Episcopal Church. Photo courtesy of the Bellaire Public Library.St. Clairsville Gazette 8/4/1887. First and Second Presbyterian merged at some point, but the frame Noble Street church was not replaced until sometime between 1900-1908 per Sanborn Fire Insurance maps. As mentioned above, the design was not by Yost. Be interesting to see what the “handsome structure”Yost proposed two decades previously looked like.Bellaire: Trinity Episcopal Church (to the right of the school building). Noble Street between 40th and 42nd Streets. Built 1879. Razed. Photo courtesy of the Bellaire Public Library.Two move views, above and below, of Trinity Episcopal Church (frame structure behind the group of children). Photo courtesy of the Bellaire Public Library.
Old sketch of Trinity Episcopal Church. Photo credit: Facebook.
Bellaire: St. John’s Catholic Church and School. Guernsey Street at 37th Street. Built circa 1895. Razed.Photo courtesy of the Bellaire Public Library.Bellaire: Second Ward School (aka Union Street School). Union Street at 26th Street. Built circa late 1870’s. Razed.St. Clairsville Belmont Chronicle 5/11/1876. “The other in South Bellaire” would be the above school.Fourth Ward School (aka Central School). Guernsey Street at 35th Street. Built 1871. This was very likely the first school designed by Yost.Photo credit: My Hometown Bellaire Ohio Facebook page.Photo credit: Jim Tarbet.Bellaire: Fifth Ward School (aka Gravel Hill School). 4490 Noble Street at an alley extension of 45th Street. Built circa late 1870’s. Converted to apartments. Bell tower removed, porch across the front added, etc. Stucco applied long ago over the brick as evidenced below. Hoping a blog reader will have a picture of what the building looked like when it was a school.St. Clairsville Belmont Chronicle 9/12/1878. Perhaps Mr. Faris owned the first phonograph in Bellaire?It was invented in 1877.Bellaire: Albert L. and Rosannah Hilborn Wetherald residence. 4363 Guernsey Street. Built 1875. Albert was superintendant of Laughlin Nail Works. His brother Thomas was the father of Yost’s wife, Anna Wetherald Yost. The house was razed for Route 7 widening.Photo credit: Historic American Buildings Survey.St. Clairsville Belmont Chronicle 11/19/1874.Side view.Bellaire: Joseph Warren and Anna Wetherald Yost residence. 4825 Guernsey Street. Built circa 1880. The house was razed for Route 7 widening.Photo credit: Historic American Buildings Survey.SPECULATION.Bellaire: business block listed in Yost & Packard’s Portfolio of Architectural Realties built for an unnamed owner. 3293 Belmont Street. This striking building is the most likely candidate. Photocourtesy of the Bellaire Public Library.Today. Photo credit: Mindy Cross.Yost’s I.O.O.F. design on the right and the speculated Yost-designed building on the left. Photo credit: Facebook.St. Clairsville: Belmont County Courthouse. 101 West Main Street. Built 1885-88. Photo credit: Yost & Packard’s Portfolio of Architectural Realities.National Register of Historic Places.St. Clairsville: Belmont County Jail. 101 East Main Street. Built 1890. Photo credit: History and Genealogy for the Belmont Co. OH Area Facebook page.Now houses the Belmont County Heritage Museum.
The jail cells in the back are unrestored. Photo credit: History and Genealogy for the Belmont Co. OH Area Facebook page.
Both the courthouse and the jail.A Yost design? St. Clairsville: Hotel Clarendon. 102 East Main Street. Built 1890. Yost & Packard’s Portfolio of Architectural Realties states that its contents are “accepted designs and actual constructions.” Included in that promotional publication is a St. Clairsville hotel by a different name. The Clarendon has to be it…perhaps a last minute name change or a Portfolio error. Photo credit: Google.
Belmont Chronicle 1/1/1891. Photo credit: St. Clairsville Public Library.
There are some similarities between the Hotel Clarendon which opened in 1890 and the Hotel Holmes, a Yost design, which opened in Westerville in 1889.Restored and now apartments.
Belmont Chronicle 2/8/1894.Thomas Clark passed away at age 63 just five years after the unfortunate loss of ownership of his hotel. Perhaps a descendant knows the answer to who designed it.
The photo captures all three buildings: courthouse on the left, the jail next to it, and the hotel across the street.Tacoma (just outside Barnesville): Belmont County Children’s Home. Built 1880. Razed. Photo credit: Barnesville’s 200 Years, A Pictorial History.
St. Clairsville Belmont Chronicle 6/19/1879. Cornerstone laying with Yost, a Mason, in attendance.
Woodsfield, Monroe County: Public School. North Paul Street. Built 1896. Razed.Photo credit: Woodsfield (Ohio) Elementary School Facebook page.Interior of the school. Photo credit: Facebook.Sixth grade class, 1936. Photo credit: Dennis Norris.Woodsfield: Monroe County Jail and Sheriff’s Residence. 108 West Court Street. Built 1878. This is likely the first of several jails designed by Yost. Photo credit: Monroe County, Ohio (Memories) Facebook page.Photo credit: Monroe County Historical Society.Todayhouses Monroe County EMS.
Following is a selection of Yost designs that still stand in Ohio. The pictures are current. Historic pictures and information on many of these structures is published in other blogs.
Caldwell: Noble County Jail and Jailor Residence. 419 West Street. Built 1883. National Register of Historic Places. Today houses the Noble County Historical Society Museum. Cambridge: Guernsey County Courthouse. 801 Wheeling Avenue. Built 1881-83. Photo taken on a very foggy morning.Cambridge: Methodist Episcopal Church. 641 Steubenville Avenue. Built 1885. This photo taken on that same foggy morning.Columbus: Orton Hall, Ohio State University. South Oval. Built 1893. National Register of Historic Places.Columbus: Broad Street Methodist Episcopal Church. 501 West Broad Street. Built 1895.
Columbus: Charles Q. and Bertha Longbon Davis residence. 797 Dennison Avenue. Built 1889.Columbus: Edward A. and Jane Doherty Fitch residence. 1263 Bryden Road (renumbered 1265). Built 1880.Columbus: William Alfred and Della Moore Hardesty residence. 91 Hamilton Park. Built 1885/86. A survivor of I-71 freeway construction that saw East Broad Street mansions razed. This house backs up to the interstate.Joseph Warren and Anna Wetherald Yost residence.1216 Bryden Road. Likely built 1897. Architect Yost moved his practice from Bellaire (Ohio) to Columbus in 1882. Per Columbus city directories, the Yosts resided elsewhere until moving into the Bryden Road house in 1897. Daughter Mary Alma married Charles Morris Johnson in this house in 1898.Delaware: University Hall and Gray Chapel. Ohio Wesleyan University. Built 1893. National Register of Historic Places.Delaware: Asbury Methodist Episcopal Church. 55 West Lincoln Avenue. Built 1890.Delaware: Steeves Block. 57 North Sandusky Street. Built 1890.Hillboro: Highland County Jail and Sheriff’s Residence. Governor Foraker Place. Built 1895.Office space today.Millersburg: Holmes County Courthouse. 1 East Jackson Street. Built 1884-86.
Woodsfield The Spirit of Democracy7/22/1884.
New Lexington: Perry County Courthouse. South Main Street. Built 1886-1888.
New Lexington: Perry County Jail. 110 West Brown Street. Built 1887.The courthouse and jail sit side-by-side.New Lexington: City Hall. South Main Street. Built 1887.Original look of New Lexington City Hall.Newark: Licking County Jail. 46 South Third Street. Built 1899.No longer in use. Open for tours…and the tour is a good one. Check out “Haunted Licking County Jail” on Facebook.Piqua: Plaza Hotel. 116 West High Street. Built 1891.The former hotel now houses the public library.Piqua: Westminster Presbyterian Church. 325 West Ash Street. Built 1890.Piqua: Myron E. and Carrie Young Barber residence.324 West Greene Street. Built 1891.Troy: Miami County Courthouse. 215 West Main Street. Built 1885-1888. National Register of Historic Places.West Union: Wilson Children’s Home. 300 North Wilson Drive. Built 1884. This is the only surviving Yost children’s home design and still serves the children of Adams County. Photo credit: Adams County Children Services.
Pittsburgh Post Gazette 11/26/1923.
Charles Morris and Mary Alma Yost Johnson residence. 731 Orchard Avenue, Avalon, PA. Designed by Yost.
The Columbus Dispatch 11/27/1923.
Mount Union College Bulletin, November 1923.
Interment at Clarington Cemetery, Monroe County, just a few miles from Yost’s boyhood home.The father of Joseph Warren Yost. Photo credit: Steve Flower.The mother of Joseph Warren Yost. Photo credit: Steve Flower.
The last several paragraphs of an article that appeared in The Alliance Review 8/22/1996…and Joseph Warren Yost’s granddaughter gets the final word in this blog and tribute.
Histories and Mysteries 
1 Comment