For five years, Susan W. Thrane and photographers Tom and Bill Patterson crisscrossed Ohio to visit all 88 of the state's county courthouses.

        They produced a coffee-table-size book, County Courthouses of Ohio (Indiana University Press, $39.95), published last month.

        Of the many county courthouse restorations that have occurred in Ohio in the past 20 years, among the most impressive are those in Mahoning, Trumbull and Clinton counties, Ms. Thrane said.

        Ms. Thrane credits Youngstown's Mahoning County for starting the wave of courthouse restorations that has swept across Ohio.

        Mahoning's restoration project began in the 1980s and took six years and $8 million to complete. The exterior of the 1911 courthouse received a chemical cleaning, its windows were replaced and replicas of the original bronze doors were installed. The interior was repainted in its original colors.

        The interior of the Clinton County's 1919 courthouse in Wilmington recently underwent a $1.1 million restoration.

        Although it has not been recently restored, the Highland County Courthouse in Hillsboro graces the cover of Ms. Thrane's book. Built in 1835, it is the oldest Ohio building still in continuous use as a courthouse.

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