Ben Hill County Courthouse, Fitzgerald, GA, US

Ben Hill County Courthouse is the historic

county courthouse A courthouse or court house is a building that is home to a local court of law and often the regional county government as well, although this is not the case in some larger cities. The term is common in North America. In most other English-spe ...

of Ben Hill County,

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

, located in

Fitzgerald The FitzGerald/FitzMaurice Dynasty is a noble and aristocratic dynasty of Cambro-Norman, Anglo-Norman and later Hiberno-Norman origin. They have been peers of Ireland since at least the 13th century, and are described in the Annals of the ...

. It was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

on September 18, 1980. It is located at East Central Avenue at South Sheridan Street.

History

Ben Hill County was created from parts of

Irwin Irwin may refer to: Places ;United States * Irwin, California * Irwin, Idaho * Irwin, Illinois * Irwin, Iowa * Irwin, Nebraska * Irwin, Ohio * Irwin, Pennsylvania * Irwin, South Carolina * Irwin County, Georgia * Irwin Township, Venango County, Pe ...

and

Wilcox Wilcox may refer to: Places ;Canada *Wilcox, Saskatchewan ;United States *Wilcox, Florida, an unincorporated community in Gilchrist County, Florida *Wilcox, Missouri *Wilcox, Nebraska * Wilcox, Pennsylvania *Wilcox, Washington * Wilcox, Wisconsin * ...

counties in 1907, and Fitzgerald was selected as the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...

.Wilber W. Caldwell, ''Courthouse and the Depot: The Architecture of Hope in an Age of Despair'', Mercer University Press 2001, p. 547. A bond was approved for the county courthouse by 1908, and Virginia architect Henry H. Huggins was selected as architect by the

county commission A county commission (or a board of county commissioners) is a group of elected officials (county commissioners) collectively charged with administering the county government in some states of the United States; such commissions usually comprise ...

ers from a group of fourteen proposals. It was completed in 1909 at a cost of $50,000.Cam M. Jordan & Sherri K. Butler, ''Fitzgerald'', Arcadia 2010, p. 67. The building initially had a

clock tower Clock towers are a specific type of structure which house a turret clock and have one or more clock faces on the upper exterior walls. Many clock towers are freestanding structures but they can also adjoin or be located on top of another buildi ...

atop it, but it fell through to the ground-floor lobby sometime in the mid-20th century and was never replaced.Milton N. Hopkins, Jr., ''Around Fitzgerald, Georgia in Vintage Postcards'', Arcadia: 2001, p. 117. A

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

war memorial on the courthouse lawn reads: "In grateful appreciation of the boys of Ben Hill County who gave their service during the

World War A world war is an international conflict which involves all or most of the world's major powers. Conventionally, the term is reserved for two major international conflicts that occurred during the first half of the 20th century, World WarI (1914 ...

. Erected by Nathaniel Abney Chapter, Daughters of American Revolution, Dec. 28, 1928."

References

External links

* {{Commons category-inline, Ben Hill County Courthouse County courthouses in Georgia (U.S. state) Courthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Georgia (U.S. state) Buildings and structures in Ben Hill County, Georgia Fitzgerald, Georgia micropolitan area National Register of Historic Places in Ben Hill County, Georgia

History

See also

References

External links