Turner County Courthouse - National Registration of Historical Places Application + Photos - #80001247

Turner County Courthouse National Historical Registration Application .pdf

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Title

Turner County Courthouse - National Registration of Historical Places Application + Photos - #80001247

Description

Pages: 4

This red and buff colored courthouse has three entrances. Two are elaborate. They are projecting, Ionic tetrastyle. The cement columns are coupled on each side of a pedimented doorway. The columns are capped by a pediment filled with a design featuring a center cartouche and tendrils. The modillioned cornice and use of quoining on the facade give a bold, direct appearance. The rectangular windows on the first story have lintels in which the key stone and end voussoirs are emphasized. The rectangular second story windows have a flat arch lintel and elaborated sills in which the end stones are emphasized. Small rectangular windows are under the cornice.

In the courtroom is a coved pressed metal ceiling which consists of recessed squares with leaf motifs in each corner. Ionic pilasters that echo the exterior columns alternate with the windows. The balcony remains open and has an ornate spindle railing with brackets beneath. It is held up by iron columns of the Corinthian order.

The pew like spectator seats are hand grained (see photograph). This fine graining was done in the last eight years by a Mr. Beasley of Turner County, now deceased. According to F. H. Wordlaw, Jr., [Floyd H. Wardlow, Jr.] Turner County Attorney, a mixture of paint and beer
was used to create the wood graining.

The square bell tower, which rises majestically, is capped with an octagonally domed cupola. The Historical Society of Turner County has used this tower adaptively by exhibiting artifacts, memorabilia, and photographs as one climbs to the top fo the tower. One is literally "inside" the hooded clocks (E. Howard Clock works) which have been electrified. The domed cupola contains a bell with a yoke pulley and rope so it could be run independently for fires, riots, etc.

SIGNIFICANCE:
The plan of the courthouse is an eclectic one. A highly patterned, bold, red and buff colored structure, it is the most outstanding building in Ashburn, a most unlikely setting for an Italianate clock tower. It depicts the local flavor of politics in 1907 and reveals the taste of the leaders of the community that selected the plan.

The hand grained spectator seats in the courtroom are the only ones founds in Georgia.

Source

https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/80001247

Date

September 18, 1980

Citation

“Turner County Courthouse - National Registration of Historical Places Application + Photos - #80001247,” Turner County Project Digital Archive Repository, accessed December 24, 2024, https://turnercountyproject.com/archive/items/show/243.

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