When it comes to the selection of the county courthouse, in Fairfield County money talks and less money walks. There was much debate accompanying the placing of the Fairfield County Courthouse in Bridgeport. Fairfield was the site of the first county seat and there, in 1720, the colonists erected the first courthouse--a wooden structure that was burned by the British during the Revolutionary War. It was rebuilt in 1794. But by the mid-1800s, with the burgeoning industrial and population growth of neighboring Bridgeport made it the obvious choice to host the replacement of the overwhelmed Fairfield facility. Obvious, except to the folks in Norwalk. Bridgeport offered to pay $75,000 to build a courthouse and jail, ending the brouhaha. The sandstone building was designed by Alexander Jackson Davis in the Greek Revival-style, which resembles a temple. The building had two main floors for court and county government, a large ground floor for use as City Hall and a large gathering space, Washington Hall, for public meetings.

Today it is known as McLevy Hall, named for popular former 24-year Socialist mayor Jasper McLevy, for whom the green the Ionic-columned building fronts. it is remembered today as the location where a little-known Republican candidate for President delivered a two-hour impassioned political speech against slavery on March 10, 1860. Abraham Lincoln, however, probably best remembered Bridgeport as the place where he enjoyed his first plate of New England fried oysters.