Henderson County Court House, First & Main Streets, Henderson

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Henderson, Kentucky Owner or custodian; Henderson County Judge Address: Henderson, Kentucky Date built; (approx) Architect LIttleberry Weaver or builder; Present condition* Fair m Number of stories: . Two stories, and basenant, (boiler room ana public toilet only) Material used Foundation: llas^ry ( s tuoooed } in ccnr;truction: H.rter;! or walls : Erick (stuccoed 5 Interior partitions: Brick and frame, plastered* Floors; Concrete and wood, covered witl: linoleum. Roof: Frame construction, covered with standing seam tin. Description; lbs bar was the professional battleground architectural of brilliant men - Towles, DIxon, Powell, and historical Cook, hchenry, the Barbours, and a host of others. Improvements were made in by J. Oh Kriss, architect, and X.

CK Livers, contractor, for The interior of the building was completely overhauled, and made both comfortable and convenient. m During the second year of the Civil V/ar this build- ing was taken by the soldiers and occupied as a mill tar?/ bead' Quarters, a prison house, hospital, cook-houso and o means of HAB5 KV. 51 - W ewx> 2 defense against the attacks of the enemy. At the close of the war the Interior of the "building presented a mutilated--. aooeamnce. pews and benches, flooring and the other neces^. sary appendages had boon sacrificed to the flames or whittled Into ingenious trinkets.

Its ruthless inmates had laid destroying hands upon evidences of value, torn from its walls the beauties of architecture, and knifed into shapless con- fusion the bench from which justice had been delivered. Judge Hutchen, called a meeting in the fall of to devise ways and means for repairing and re-organ!zing the Court House, which had been rendered worthless from causes ^rowinn: out of the late war. The sum of was ord ^red appropriated to the remodeling and repairing of the Court House. A committee was appointed to borrow the said sum on the credit of the county. At the May term, plans and specifications of the architects, Mursinna and Boyd, were received and adopted. The internal arrangements of the building was completely revolutionized by the architects.

In this change, a large vault was built for the purpose; of preserving the records of the county, The work was finished in In a two-story wing was added, the lower floor sot apart for the office of the Circuit Court Clerk, and office records. Another vault was added at the ssr;e time. j f another addition of a winp was completed to provide space for the County Clerk's office and the Grand Jurv room. Among those who Practiced in this old Court House, and later were governors of Kentucky: Governor Lazarus W, Powell, Governor John Young Brown, Governor Augustus Owsley Stanley, and Lieutftnant-Govemor Archibald Dixon. /pa A,