The Cheshire County Courthouse, located at 12 Court Street in Keene,

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

, is the center of government of

Cheshire County, New Hampshire Cheshire County is a county in the southwestern portion of the U.S. state of New Hampshire. As of the 2020 census, the population was 76,458. Its county seat is the city of Keene. Cheshire was one of the five original counties of New Hampshire ...

. Completed in 1859 to a design by Gridley James Fox Bryant, it is believed to be the oldest courthouse in regular use in the state. 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 December 13, 1978.

Description and history

The Cheshire County Courthouse occupies a prominent position just off downtown Keene's Central Square, at the northwest corner of Court and Winter streets. It is a two-story masonry structure, built out of red brick and set on a rusticated granite foundation. The main facade is five bays wide on the ground floor and three on the second, with round-arch windows set in each bay except where the main entrance is located. The entrance is at the center of the facade, fronted by a hip-roof portico supported by paired square columns on either side of a round-arch entry. The upper floor corners are

pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...

ed, and the central bay projects slightly, housing a large window set in a paneled recess. The main roof features a

bracket A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. Typically deployed in symmetric pairs, an individual bracket may be identified as a 'left' or 'r ...

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

, and is topped by an octagonal belfry with a

weather vane A wind vane, weather vane, or weathercock is an instrument used for showing the direction of the wind. It is typically used as an architectural ornament to the highest point of a building. The word ''vane'' comes from the Old English word , m ...

. Construction on the courthouse began in 1858, and it was first used in 1859. It was built on the site of an early records storage building, whose stone foundation may have been partly reused in construction of this building. The building was designed by Gridley James Fox Bryant, an architect from Boston, Massachusetts, who was well known for his many civic designs. The exterior of the building is virtually unaltered, and the interior is also little altered, mainly to provide modern amenities such as plumbing and electricity.

References

External links

* {{NRHP in Cheshire County, New Hampshire Courthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in New Hampshire Government buildings completed in 1859 Buildings and structures in Keene, New Hampshire County courthouses in New Hampshire National Register of Historic Places in Cheshire County, New Hampshire

Description and history

See also

References

External links