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cMratingHANCOCK COUNTY
Historic courthouse among revered landmarks
page 5
BY NAN PATTON EHRBRIGHT
THE SUN HERALD
Hancock Countians are accustomed to having out-of-town visitors stop their cars in front of 150 Main St. and holler, “Where's the county courthouse?”
It’s directly in front of them, of course, and the locals point it out.
"How come the ‘U’s’ look like ‘V’s’?” they ask.
The answer is that that’s how the letter ‘U’ was written when the courthouse was built.
The courthouse hasn’t always been on Main Street. In 1817, five years after the establishment of Hancock County, the first courthouse was built at Center, which later became Caesar. The seat of county government remained there for 20 years, then was moved to Gainesville in 1837.
When the Gainesville courthouse burned in 1853, the county seat moved again, to Shieldsborough, which is now Bay St. Louis.
A wooden courthouse at Shieldsborough built in 1866 lasted for about 45 years.
New Orleans architects Keenan and Weiss were hired to design a new courthouse in July 1910 at a cost not to exceed $25,000. Construction costs were paid from the general county fund, but the board of supervisors borrowed $10,000 from Hancock Bank tor the building, to be
repaid at $2,000 a year for 5 years.
The board accepted the new courthouse on Sept. 20, 1911. To complete the furnishing, county officials bought, for court and jury rooms, 36 chairs, 48 cuspidors, 24 sheets and 12 each of single beds, mattresses, pillows and blankets.
At that time, jurors - all male - stayed at the courthouse during a trial. When Circuit Court Clerk Pam Metzler oversaw the cleaning out of the courthouse attic several years ago, she found a bathtub tucked away in a corner, the last remaining furnishing from those "good ol’ days.”
Long-time residents and courthouse employees tell tales that indicate the courthouse may be haunted. There are two versions about the alleged ghost - a dark-haired young woman in an old-fashioned dress. She was hanged in the courtyard, where executions were held long ago, or her husband was hanged there for a crime he didn't commit.
Over the years, as the population has expanded, some offices have moved out of the courthouse into other quarters. The tax office is located at Main Street and Second Street the street now, and chancery court has moved, along with justice court, into a building on the U.S. 90 service road.
At no time is the courthouse busier than on election days, when, traditionally, candidates’ supporters and interested voters gather around the courthouse in the
evening to hear the results broadcast over a loudspeaker. Main Street is blocked off, and people bring lawn chairs, blankets and coolers to camp out, applaud the winners and chat with friends and neighbors.
The Board of Supervisors hopes to build an addition to the courthouse for a juvenile detention center, offices and an elevator to the second floor.
BAY ST. LOUIS CITY HAH,
Before Bay St. Louis built its own city hall, city officials used a room at the county courthouse, a privilege earned by having contributed $700 toward its construction. At the turn of the century, county supervisors asked the city to vacate. An ensuing lawsuit over the eviction went all the way to the state Supreme Court, which upheld the county’s action in 1902.
In 1904, city officials paid $950 to buy 1.6 acres on Second Street next to the L&.N Railroad tracks from the Sisters of St. Joseph Academy.
Builders then borrowed from a number of architectural styles, including Greek and Roman Revival and Renaissance. City Hall reflects this eclectic mode with its Roman Revival portico, Egyptian Revival cornices on the downstairs windows and a Renaissance dome that graced the root until Hurricane Camille destroyed it in 1969.
The low bid tor construction, awarded on Oct. 1, 1905, was $8,750.
The city floated $5,000 in bonds to help
pay for the building, which was completed in less than four months.
It contained a board room and offices on the upper floor and a city jail on the gTound floor. The jail was used until a county jail was built adjoining the courthouse in 1937. That jail
was replaced in 1986 by the county jail on Court Street.
OTHER LANDMARKS
The courthouse and Bay St. Louis City Hall have been designated as Mississippi landmarks, along with the old Webb School, now the home of the REBOS Club.
Charles Gray, president of the Hancock County Historical Society, notes that the county has 576 properties on the National Registry ot Historic Sites.
“That’s the third largest in the state," Gray said. “Only Jackson and Natchez are larger.”
The society is gathering photographs of almost every’ house in the county for its archives. It also is gathering material and photographs for publication of biographies of county residents.