{{Use American English|date=July 2025}} {{Infobox NRHP | name = Old School Privy | nrhp_type = | image = Old School Privy.jpg | caption = Western and northern sides | location = 310 Main St., Genoa, Ohio | coordinates = {{coord|41|30|54|N|83|21|34|W|display=inline,title}} | locmapin = Ohio#USA | built = {{Start date|1870}} | architecture = Romanesque Revival | added = July 31, 1975 | area = {{convert|0.1|acre}} | refnum = 75001515<ref name=nris>{{NRISref|version=2010a}}</ref> }} The '''Old School Privy''' is a historic outhouse in the village of Genoa, Ohio, United States. Constructed in the 1870s, it has the unusual distinction of being both a public toilet and an official historic site.
Incorporated in 1868, Genoa quickly sought to demonstrate its residents' civic pride through the construction of fine buildings. Among these was its first schoolhouse, which the residents built two years later; it was significant enough to the community that they also erected an architecturally distinctive public toilet adjacent to it in the same year. Public toilets were once common near crossroads in Ohio and other Northwest Territory states, but architecture comparable to the Old School Privy was virtually unknown for such humble structures.<ref name=dohp>Owen, Lorrie K., ed. ''Dictionary of Ohio Historic Places''. Vol. 2. St. Clair Shores: Somerset, 1999, 1129-1130.</ref> In later years, the building was converted for use as an incinerator.<ref name=nris />
Built of brick, the privy features elements of limestone. It is a rectangular building with a gabled roof and a chimney at each end; two doors pierce the front, while two full windows and a small semicircular light are placed in the side.<ref>{{OHC NRHP|75001515|Old School Privy}}, Ohio Historical Society, 2007. Accessed 2013-12-09.</ref> Rather than being built simply functionally without unnecessary elements, the building features the high styling of Romanesque Revival architecture, such as rusticated stone trim and decorative stonework in the arches that top the entrances. Stonework is used in many of the components that were expected to see heavy use, including the steps, the windowsills, the thresholds, and the water table.<ref name=dohp />
In 1975, the Old School Privy was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, qualifying because of its place in local history. One of 29 such locations in Ottawa County, it was the seventh to be given this distinction. Other outhouses have been added to the Register as contributing properties to larger designations,<ref name=nris /> such as the outhouses associated with the Old Union Church at Alfordsville in southwestern Indiana,<ref>Bradley, L. Oenone, and Amy Walker. ''National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Old Union Church and Cemetery''. National Park Service, 2004-09-24, 5.</ref> but very few public toilets such as the Old School Privy or Colorado's Bear Lake Comfort Station have individually been named to the Register.<ref name=nris />
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfBb-TnBioM Genoa outhouse on National Register of Historic Places], May 3, 2019, WTOL
{{National Register of Historic Places}}
Category:School buildings completed in 1870 Category:National Register of Historic Places in Ottawa County, Ohio Category:Restrooms in the United States Category:Romanesque Revival architecture in Ohio Category:1870 establishments in Ohio Category:Education in Ottawa County, Ohio