Morristown, New Jersey

Architect-builders Joseph M. Lindsley of Morristown and Lewis Carter of Chatham crafted one of New Jersey’s finest Federal-style public buildings for the Morris County courthouse when it left the center of the Green in 1827. The land cost $100.  The red brick is trimmed with brownstone quarried in the neighborhood. Above the entrance is a gilded statue of Justice - it is unusual because in Morris County, justice is not blindfolded.

Norristown, Pennsylvania

The oldest part of the Montgomery County Court House, which faces Swede Street, is of the Greek Revival style. It was built as the result of a competition of 1849 between Thomas U. Walter (architect of Girard College and later of the U.S. Capitol dome) and Napoleon LeBrun, designer of Philadelphia’s Academy of Music and Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul. LeBrun’s successful design originally featured a steeple that was even higher than the Presbyterian church’s to the east, and it was criticized as being out of keeping with the Greek Revival style. The steeple was replaced by the dome in a substantial renovation of 1904. The interior of the Court House dates largely from 1904, when the stained glass ceilings in courtrooms A, B, and C were installed.

Binghamton, New York

The Binghamton municipal government greeted the new 20th century in this French Renaissance confection designed by Raymond Francis Almirall in 1898. The five-story building is constructed of rusticated native limestone supporting a slate roof punctuated by ornate dormers and topped with a copper clad cupola. The Latin words beneath the exuberant cornice translate to “Let justice be done thought he heavens fall.” The government stayed until 1972 and the building has be refitted as a hotel.

Bellefonte, Pennsylvania

The Centre County courthouse was first constructed in 1805 and 1806, with a wing added in 1811.  The Ionic columns on the porch were built in 1835. With the exception of this porch, the entire building was replaced in 1854 and 1855. The rear section was added in 1909 through 1911, and the new east wing was built in 1963-1964. The Soldiers and Sailors War Memorial and statue of Andrew Gregg Curtin were dedicated in 1906.  The Memorial was designed by Joseph M Huston, the architect who designed the State Capitol Building in Harrisburg.  The intersection of four streets in front of the Courthouse, known as The Diamond, has been the hub of all activity in Bellefonte since its founding and is representative of the Pennsylvania Diamond, characteristic of towns in Pennsylvania and nearby areas which were settled by Pennsylvanians.

Camden, South Carolina

Camden’s most famous personage has stood watch over the town for the better part of 200 years. From about 1750 until 1763 King Haiglar, a Catawba chief, was a valuable friend to the pioneers of Pine Tree Hill, as Camden was then known.

Some time between 1815 and 1826, J.B. Mathieu, executed a 5’1” iron effigy of King Haiglar and presented it to the town. It stands as a weather vane atop the Opera House tower that was constructed in 1886. This is the third clock tower built in Camden. The first was built for the town marketplace at the corner of Bull and Market streets. It was destroyed by fire in 1812. A bell and clock joined the second marketplace/tower in the 1820s. The present tower was erected in 1885.

In addition to the market on the first floor, it also served as an opera house and City Hall offices. In 1954 the city sold the building but retained the rights to the 107-foot tower. When the government moved into new offices at the end of Rutledge Street in 1995 a copy of King Haiglar was placed atop new City Hall.

When it came time to move into new quarters in the mid 1950s city fathers chose to build a Neo-Georgian City Hall that harkens back to the days of the American Revolution.

Torrington, Connecticut

Carl Victor Johnson was working both sides of the street in the mid-1930s. He incorporated classical Colonial Revival elements into his design for City Hall, just as he did for the savings bank it faces.

Indiana, Pennsylvania

A courthouse appeared on this corner in the center of town shortly after the county was formed in 1803. J.W. Drum designed this replacement in 1870 at the cost of $186,000. He blended classical elements, such as the grand colonnade of fluted iron columns topped with Corinthian capitals supporting a pediment, with the then-modern Second Empire style (mansard roof). The golden clock tower consists of a podium, belfry, and cupola. When the county government moved down the street in the 1970s, the courthouse was saved from destruction by NBOC, which took out a 99 year lease with the county and poured an estimated half-million dollars into restoration.