Georgia County Government - November 2008 - (Page 27)

Georgia’s Grand Old Courthouses The Hall County Courthouse at Gainesville Built in 1884. Bruce and Morgan, architects. By Wilber W. Caldwell G a i nesv i l le was t he location of the last of Alexander Bruce’s four nearly identical courthouses. Sadly, t he bui lding was destroyed in 1936 by a devastating tor- nado that wrecked a substantial portion of Gainesville and killed more than 200 people there. Before its untimely end, this building invited comparison with its three quadruplet sisters; Bruce’s 1875 McMinn County Courthouse at Athens, Tenn., his 1882 Hancock County Courthouse at Sparta and his 1884 Walton County Courthouse at Monroe. These four Second Empire court buildings all attested to the architect’s considerable skill in combining the modernity of the fashionable Second Empire style with soft comfortably Southern forms. The Second Empire in the American North had begun as a fashionable voice of growing financial and industrial might, and by 1865 it was much employed in public building and especially popular with governmental builders. With the abuses of the Gilded Age and the corruptions of the Ulysses S. Grant administration, the style quickly became tainted by the vices of the era. Needless to say, it knew little popularity in the rural South. All of this makes Alexander Bruce’s achievement in Gainesville the more remarkable. Here, as in Sparta and Monroe, he fashioned an essentially Second Empire courthouse that succeeded despite the mansard-roofed perils inherent in its Yankee symbolism. Through a careful synthesis with more familiar forms, Bruce softened the building’s modern effect by infusing a comfortable local vocabulary – like the high-arched windows of the courtroom and the simple Classicism of the lantern. In 1885, Alexander Bruce’s Hall County Courthouse was an apt symbol for the post-war South, for stylistically it looked backward and forward at the same time. The likeness of this structure to its sisters on two other squares in the Georgia Piedmont seems to have drawn little remark in either Gainesville, Sparta or in Monroe. Although there were some differences, they were minor. The roofline of the lantern here in Gainesville is of a cleaner, more Classical type, the low porch is smaller, and there are some variations in the fenestration, banding and the decorative quoining. Nonetheless, it appears that exclusivity of design was not expected, or at least was of little importance at The Hall County Courthouse is one of four in the region featuring the Second Empire influence from its architects, Bruce and Morgan. this early date in these then rather remote places. The connectivity that was provided by Georgia’s blossoming rail system would soon put an end to such tolerance. However, in 1885, when professional architects were just beginning to make their mark in the far-flung corners of the state, this sort of self-plagiarism was apparently acceptable. Hall County’s first courthouse was a log structure built in 1818. This was replaced by a frame structure shortly thereafter, and in 1832, a simple brick building was erected. It burned in 1852 and was replaced by the fine brick building that stood until it too was consumed by fire 30 years later and replaced by Bruce’s Second Empire finery. Before the arrival of The Atlanta and Richmond Air Line railroad in 1873, Gainesville had been a town of only COURTHOUSE continued on page 28 The Second Empire in the American North had begun as a fashionable voice of growing financial and industrial might, and by 1865 it was much employed in public building and especially popular with governmental builders. NOVEMBER 2008 www.accg.org 27 http://www.accg.org

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Georgia County Government - November 2008 Contents President's Message County Matters Floyd County Leaders Foster Government That's 'Designed With Citizens in Mind' Staff News: ACCG Interns Georgia's Grand Old Courthouses: Hall County Extension News: ACCG and Extension Partner to Create 'Fellows' Program Research Corner: Resources Available Through ACCG County Parade Index of Advertisers

Georgia County Government - November 2008

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