Address Number Request

The Engineer's Office assigns rural address numbers across Fairfield County to support emergency services, delivery services, and accurate location of every residence.

In order to ensure sequential address numbering now and in the future, it is extremely important that the Engineer's Office be able to accurately identify the exact location for the address assignment. This benefits emergency services, delivery services, and others in locating a person.

The Fairfield County Engineer's Office is responsible for assigning all rural address numbers in Fairfield County. This includes those for all townships, unincorporated villages, and the incorporated villages of Millersport, Rushville, Stoutsville, and Thurston. We also assign address numbers on a few roads in Lithopolis and Lancaster.

Before a new number is completed, the property must have an approved deed, and the structure location being addressed must be staked out. It is best that tall stakes are used so they can be seen from the road. Along with a copy of the deed, the applicant submits: tax mailing address, phone number, and a brief description of the property location. The number is then determined by actual field measurements. We make every effort to respond within ten (10) working days.

Other Important Points

If the deed is not in the name of the applicant or the lot is not staked, we may not issue the number.

The county is divided by central baselines into four quadrants — NW, NE, SW, and SE. Since some roads are in more than one quadrant, those initials are used after the road name to designate the quadrant. These must be used to avoid delivery confusion.

For major subdivisions, rural numbers are not made until the approved plat has been recorded in the Recorder's Office. Typically the number is issued to the house and not the driveway; in some cases, if the house is obscured, the number is issued to the driveway. We generally will not issue numbers to a vacant lot.

When the field work is completed, we mail a completed form to the land owner or person who requested the number, unless they request to be notified for pick-up.

Questions? Contact our Roadway Services Technician at 740-652-2391 or jamie.james@fairfieldcountyohio.gov.

History of Addressing in Fairfield County

In the early 1960s, it was evident that the "rural route" addressing system used throughout Fairfield County was inadequate due to the growth of residences expanding from the cities and villages into the rural areas. An effort began to establish permanent names for all of the county's roads, as well as numbering all rural dwellings.

In the spring of 1964, Ed Johnson, tri-county organization director for the Ohio Farm Bureau, spearheaded efforts for the proposed house numbering and road naming project. With funding available and research completed, the County Commissioners moved forward with the project.

Some advantages of such a system are to:

  • Help eliminate confusion and speed up the response of emergency services such as fire protection, law enforcement, ambulance, and doctor calls.
  • Assist U.S. postal deliveries.
  • Expedite services by commercial businesses such as delivery, and electric, phone, and gas services.
  • Provide a system of correct addressing for future growth of the county.
  • Eliminate confusion of roads known by different names and prevent businesses from creating their own road names.

Farm Bureau members met with Township Trustees and residents to establish permanent names for the roads, which in some cases were known by as many as six different names. On November 16, 1964, the County Commissioners voted to approve a list of road names for the public roads maintained by the State of Ohio, the County, and the Township Trustees.

The county was divided by central baselines running north–south and east–west, dividing the county into four quadrants (NW, NE, SW, SE). Additional gridlines were added for each mile from the intersecting baselines, and 1,000 numbers were allocated for each mile of road, reserving numbers for future growth. The address number is based on the drive or structure location, plus the official road name, the quadrant, and the town's name and zip code.

In 1966, the Engineer's Office began issuing and documenting official addresses throughout the county. The addressing process has been modified through the years due to large-scale subdivisions, condominiums, and apartments. The cities and some villages perform their own addressing within their corporation limits.