Greensburg, Pennsylvania

This Beaux Arts tour-de-force is the fourth courthouse for Westmoreland County; fifth if you count the sessions held in Robert Hanna’s tavern when the county was formed by an Act of Assembly on February 26, 1773. Newtown, now Greensburg, was selected as the permanent county seat in 1785 and this spot has always been reserved for the halls of justice.

The imposing four-story structure of light grey Maine granite was erected in 1906. It’s central dome, 175 feet above the ground, is of Italian Renaissance style, one of only two in the world designed by the courthouse’s original architect, William Kauffman. The massive central dome is flanked on either side by two smaller ones above the main entrance, originally covered with ornamental gold and ivory terra cotta. Roof edges and pediments are decorated with stone banisters and ornamental carving and figures.

Inside, beneath the 85-foot domed ceiling, is a vision of quality stonework. English-veined Italian marble decorates the public hall walls as well as the rotunda. Corridor floors and ceilings are laid with varicolored mosaics. Panels are set with marble mosaics in Renaissance patterns. A grand staircase of marble from the first floor opens upward to twin spirals to the second floor. Circular mezzanines on each floor of the rotunda are balustraded in white marble.