The Greek Revival portico is attributed to Robert Mills, South Carolina native son and designer of the Washington Monument, and built by Charleston contractors in 1822 at the coast of $20,750. The Colleton County Courthouse is a handsomely designed brick building stuccoed to represent stone. The entrance façade contains curved stairways with ironwork railings leading to a raised portico with an ironwork balustrade. Four Tuscan columns support the portico’s massive, undecorated entablature. The portico is framed by two pilasters and shelters a double, four-paneled door with sidelights and transom. The roofline is formed by a parapet extending the full width of the entrance façade, where it is surmounted by a shorter, second parapet. An arcaded entrance is below the raised portico. Two large wings were added to the original building in 1939. The first public meeting on nullification was held here in June 1828 when Robert Barnwell Rhett delivered his militant “Walterboro Address” urging Governor John Taylor to call an immediate session of the state legislature for the purpose of openly resisting tariff laws.
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