Cambria County Courthouse is a historic

courthouse A courthouse or court house is a structure which houses judicial functions for a governmental entity such as a state, region, province, county, prefecture, regency, or similar governmental unit. A courthouse is home to one or more courtrooms, ...

located at Ebensburg,

Cambria County, Pennsylvania Cambria County is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 133,472. Its county seat is Ebensburg, Pennsylvania, Ebensb ...

. It was built in 1880-1881, and is a 3 1/2-story, brick building in the Second Empire style. It features a

mansard roof A mansard or mansard roof (also called French roof or curb roof) is a multi-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterised by two slopes on each of its sides, with the lower slope at a steeper angle than the upper, and often punctured by dormer wi ...

. It was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1980.

Building

Two earlier courthouses served the county. The first was built in 1808 and the second in 1828-1830. The current courthouse was built on the same site as the second. M.E. Beebe of

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is a Administrative divisions of New York (state), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and county seat of Erie County, New York, Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of ...

designed the courthouse and Henry Shenk constructed it at a cost of $109,962. The building is a parallelogram with a 120 ft. of frontage on Center St. with a depth of 80 ft. The height to the eaves of the roof is 48 ft. Eighty thousand pressed bricks made by H & G Evans of Philadelphia were used to construct the outer walls, and 20,000 bricks were made onsite for the inner walls. The mansard slate roof has porthole dormers and elaborate chimneys and a decorative bracketed cornice. The central pavilion has flanking pilasters supporting a classic portico. A 1923 renovation added an elevator, three new wings, each with a courtroom, and a rotunda with an elaborate glass dome joining the wings. Courtroom 1 was added at this time. It is one of the largest courtrooms in the United States, with 500 seats. A second renovation was completed in 1995. Twenty-six portraits of county judges grace the building, many of which were painted in the 1920s and 1930s by Mr. and Mrs. Vale. Two 1930 murals, ''Knowledge'' and ''Justice'' were restored in 1994.

References

External links

* {{National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania Courthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania Second Empire architecture in Pennsylvania Government buildings completed in 1881 Buildings and structures in Cambria County, Pennsylvania National Register of Historic Places in Cambria County, Pennsylvania County courthouses in Pennsylvania 1881 establishments in Pennsylvania

Building

See also

References

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