History of Union County's Court House
Union
County Court House, 1925
1960
- Historic Court House - 2006
The 1832 act
creating Union County gave the new justices of the Inferior
Court authority to select a county seat and erect a Court
House and other county buildings. Until that action was
taken, elections and court sessions were to be held at the
house of Isaac N. Greer.
At some point, a log Court House was built in Blairsville.
It is believed to have burned in 1859 and was replaced by a
two-story brick vernacular-style building, which served
until 1898. After a fire in the court house, it was deemed
"unfit and unsafe." In 1899, under a Special Board of
Commissioners*1
a
new two-story Court House with clock tower was built in the
town square. The bricks were made and fired
locally*2.
The Ordinary (Judge of the Ordinary Court, equivalent to
today's Sole County Commissioner) was John T. Colwell.
Read an 1899 "Atlanta Constitution" article
about the Court House's construction.
Designed
by architect J.W. Golucke & Stewart, the Romanesque
Revival-style Court House is similar to a number of other
court houses in Georgia but the 1899 Union County Court
House has a touch of infamy in its history. A noted
architect of the day, Golucke was arrested (perhaps
erroneously) for fraud in another project and later died in
jail. The taxes to pay for the new Court House were levied
all in one year, bringing serious hardship to the
economically strapped county; many residents had to sell
their cattle and land to pay their unusually large tax
bills.
The courthouse suffered years of neglect and was in serious
disrepair from the 1920’s on. In 1960 the two-ton clock and
bell tower was removed due to structural instability. In
1971, the Court House was condemned as unsafe -- but
residents were successful in convincing the county's sole
commissioner not to tear the historic building down.
Thereafter, county court sessions were held in the local
civic center, while other county officials continued in the
old Court House or moved to rented office space in several
downtown buildings.
Through the dedicated efforts of the Historical Society,
the handsome brick and granite structure still stands at
the heart of the town square, a landmark now serving as a
local history museum and cultural center. The clock and
bell tower was replicated and replaced in November 2000.
The
beautifully restored courtroom on the second floor still
functions occasionally for city and county court. But on
Friday evenings in the summer and fall, it rings with the
delightful sounds of our mountain musicians.
The Court House clock chimes the time each day, much as it
did at the beginning of the last century. Though the
traffic around the square has changed in nature and
quantity, the building on the square remains substantially
the same.
On a site two blocks away, a new Union County Office
Building was completed in 1976, consisted of the entrance
and area to the left of the building in the photo below.
However, the new office building had no courtroom, so the
Civic Center continued to serve as temporary courthouse
until a judicial annex and courtroom (the area to the right
of the entrance) was constructed in 1978. Currently (2006)
under construction is a large two story office and
courtroom being added to the rear of the 1976
facility.
Current Union County Court House
*1 All of the
Special Commissioners were Confederate
Veterans.
J. W. Souther -
Crawford's
Company, Ben Ledford's Cavalry Regt.
J. A. Butt [senior] -
Company E, 65th
Georgia Volunteer Infantry Regt.
W. W. Erwin -
Company B, 6th
Georgia Volunteer Cavalry Regt.
*2
The
bricks were made and fired at the site of the current
(2006) Blairsville Post Office .
Union County Historical Society of Georgia, Copyright 2006