The Early County Courthouse (also known as the Grand Ole Lady)
[Tina Owen & Early County Museum, ''Early County'', Arcadia: 2011, p. 7, 18, 57, 78, 80.] is the historic county courthouse of
Early County, Georgia
Early County is a County (United States), county located on the southwest border of the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 10,854. The county seat is Blakely, Georgi ...
, located on Courthouse Square in
Blakely, Georgia
Blakely is a city in and the county seat of Early County, Georgia, United States. As of 2020, its population was 5,371. It is located approximately halfway between Columbus, Georgia, Columbus and Tallahassee, Florida on U.S. Route 27 in Georgia, ...
, the
county seat
A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...
.
It was built in 1904 and added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 18, 1980.
It is also a
contributing building
In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distr ...
in the
Blakely Court Square Historic District, NRHP-listed in 2002.
[ With .]
History
Early County was chartered in 1818 and Blakely was established as the county seat in 1825.
[Wilber W. Caldwell, ''The Courthouse and the Depot: The Architecture of Hope in an Age of Despair'', Mercer University Press, 2001, pp. 304-307.] Early County's first courthouse was a log building, first used in 1827.
That building was sold for $13 and moved, making way for the second courthouse. That two-story wooden structure was built in 1834.
The county's third courthouse, a western-facing building, was built in 1857-58 by Thomas Williams for $4,650; it was sold for $155 to make way for the fourth and present courthouse, built in 1904-1905.
The third courthouse was described by the ''Early County News'' as dangerously unsafe and dilapidated. The proposal to build a new court building "was tinted with a light wash of
New South
New South, New South Democracy or New South Creed is a slogan in the history of the American South first used after the American Civil War. Reformers used it to call for a modernization of society and attitudes, to integrate more fully with th ...
fervor and an outpouring of self-promotion."
The
grand jury
A grand jury is a jury empowered by law to conduct legal proceedings, investigate potential criminal conduct, and determine whether criminal charges should be brought. A grand jury may subpoena physical evidence or a person to testify. A grand ju ...
recommended a new courthouse, and a January 1905 piece by the ''Early County News'' praised an
architectural rendering
Architectural rendering, architectural illustration, or architectural visualization (often abbreviated to archviz or ArchViz) is the art of creating three-dimensional images or animations showing the attributes of a proposed architectural design.
...
of the proposed design by the architects
Thomas Henry Morgan and
John Robert Dillon
John Robert Dillon (died 1948) was an architect active in Atlanta, Georgia. He became associated with the Bruce and Morgan firm in 1903, which became Morgan and Dillon in 1904. A graduate of Northwestern School of Architecture, he was named a ...
, as "the handsomest structure of its kind in Southern Georgia", which would "be in keeping with the wealth and prosperity of Early County--the Garden spot of Georgia."
Design
The courthouse is two and half stories and is made of brick on the exterior, with marble floors in the main public spaces.
[Victoria Logue & Frank Logue, ''Touring the Backroads of North and South Georgia'', p. 320.] It is in the
Neoclassical (Classical Revival) style and is surrounded by smaller buildings, grass, and trees, providing a recreational space and a center for community activities.
The courthouse in designed a cross plan; each of the building's four facades is fronted with four
rusticated Georgia columns of solid
granite
Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...
, which support the porticoes facing Courthouse Square.
[''The New Georgia Guide'', University of Georgia Press, p. 557] The courthouse has a low dome, of the
Beaux-Arts style.
On the courthouse square stands an original wooden
Confederate
A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a political union of sovereign states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...
flagpole, erected in 1861, which flies the Stars and Stripes; it was hewn from a long leaf pine harvested about a mile from the county seat. The flagpole is 100 feet tall and is believed to be the only original Confederate flagpole still standing.
The courthouse square also contains a monument to the peanut, carved in stone atop a pedestal, commemorating the enduring importance of this
cash crop
A cash crop, also called profit crop, is an Agriculture, agricultural crop which is grown to sell for profit. It is typically purchased by parties separate from a farm. The term is used to differentiate a marketed crop from a staple crop ("subsi ...
to the region.
See also
*
References
External links
Confederate Flag Polehistorical marker
{{Registered Historic Places
County courthouses in Georgia (U.S. state)
Courthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Georgia (U.S. state)
Government buildings completed in 1904
Buildings and structures in Early County, Georgia
National Register of Historic Places in Early County, Georgia