Old Warren County Courthouse Complex
| Old Warren County Courthouse Complex | |||
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| National Register of Historic Places | |||
 View from the west with a view of the clock tower (2008) |
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| location | Lake George , Warren County , New York | ||
| Coordinates | 43 ° 25 '33 " N , 73 ° 42' 43" W | ||
| Built | 1845-1896 | ||
| architect | Winfield Sherwood | ||
| NRHP number | 73001282 | ||
| The NRHP added | 1973 | ||
The Old Warren County Courthouse Complex is a former courthouse at the intersection of Amherst Street and Canada Street ( US 9 / NY 9N ) in Lake George , New York . The large brick building was erected in five stages between the 1840s and 1890s. Not all of these construction phases are still in place.
The imposing clock tower became a dominant feature in the village . The administration of Warren County moved into a new building in the 1960s. After the building remained vacant for a few years, local conservationists succeeded in reopening the building for other public purposes. In 1973 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places . Today it is the seat of the local historical society and a municipal art association.
estate
The complex sits on a narrow parcel of land that stretches from the road to the shores of Lake George and is less than an acre in area. All the buildings on it are interconnected. Its load-bearing outer walls have a brick facade and sit on a limestone base . The polychrome roof made of slate is broken through by six chimneys. The three remaining parts of the building are the judges' study, the original courthouse and the prison wing from west to east.
The western facade of the building - the front - has two floors and comprises five bays . The two-story clock tower sits in the center and rises above the main entrance, the doors of which are set back in an open archway . Between the two floors are double stone tablets with the inscription WARREN COUNTY to the left of the entrance and COURT HOUSE to the right of it. A decorative brick cornice on the eaves is repeated on the roof of the clock tower. The roofs of the front part of the building complex and the clock tower are hipped roofs . The roof of the clock tower is crowned by a weather vane .
To the east of this is the original courthouse building. It is one and a half stories high and consists of three bays on each side. Pilasters separate the narrow windows from each other and the roof is interrupted by a dormer window , which is arranged on both sides in the middle of the roof area. The prison wing then follows and is closest to the lake. This part of the structure is a two-story wing with a gable roof, which comprises four bays in length and three in width. The construction of this part of the building is unusual; the ground floor is not divided and there are no columns. The upper floor is supported by three steel posts suspended from girders under the roof.
Numerous changes have been made to the interior since it was built, so that most of the architectural features from that time have been lost. The original windows and high ceilings have been preserved, and some of the original cells remain in the prison wing.
history
Lake George was designated the county seat in 1813 when Warren County was formed. At that time the settlement grew rapidly because it was on the hoped-for main trade route to Canada . At that time the place was still called Caldwell, after James Caldwell from Albany , a large landowner and businessman. For the first four years of the county's existence, the court met at a local coffee house; it was only after Caldwell provided land to build the courthouse in 1815 that one was built, including the county chief's office and prison.
Little is known about the architecture of these buildings. Records from the county suggest that what was then the courthouse had a wooden domed roof that had to be replaced regularly. As a result, the county government struggled to insure the building . The county chief's courthouse and office building burned down in 1843. A Glens Falls architect , Winfield Sherwood, designed a new building that was completed two years later. This new building forms today's central section of the building ensemble. Stephen A. Douglas is said to have given a speech against Abraham Lincoln here during the 1860 presidential election campaign in the United States .
In the second half of the 19th century, the courthouse was expanded several times, initially in 1878 with the construction of quarters for the judges and the building received its characteristic clock tower. Seven years later, in 1885, the smaller county clerk's office was replaced with a larger structure. This wing was added in front of the wing for the judges, which led to criticism because of the impact on the overall impression of the building.
The county councilors met here or in Glens Falls until 1905, when a conference room was added above the county secretary's office. Since 1860 there had been efforts to relocate the county seat to Glens Falls, as this place had become larger due to industrialization . The county government moved some offices there and some further north to Warrensburg , but Lake George remained the county seat.
In 1959, the county electorate approved a loan to build a new administrative complex in Queensbury , a few miles south on Route 9. This was completed and operational in 1963 and the old building was abandoned. After that it was not used for several years and demolition of the building was considered, the newly formed Lake George Historical Association was able to convince the Town of Lake George, which then owned the building, to use it as the association's office space and as a historic one Museum to use. Shortly afterwards, in 1969, the porch erected in 1885 was demolished so that the building regained its original front. The Lake George Arts Center opened a gallery in the former courtroom in 1977 and also took up residence in the former courthouse.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Cornelia Brooke: National Register of Historic Places nomination, Old Warren County Courthouse Complex ( English ) New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation . March 1973. Retrieved October 26, 2009.
- ^ A b John Austin: 4th Judicial District, Warren County, NY ( English ) New York State Unified Court System, Fourth Judicial District. 2004. Retrieved October 26, 2009.
- ↑ Alex Parrott: About Us ( English ) Lake George Historical Association. Retrieved October 26, 2009.
- ^ Courthouse Gallery ( English ) Lake George Arts Center. Retrieved October 26, 2009.
