The Somerset County Courthouse is a historic county government building on Court Street in downtown
Skowhegan, Maine
Skowhegan () is the county seat of Somerset County, Maine. As of the 2020 census, the town population was 8,620. Every August, Skowhegan hosts the annual Skowhegan State Fair, the oldest continuously-held state fair in the United States. Skowh ...
, the county seat of
Somerset County. The brick building was designed by local architect
Charles F. Douglas
Charles Francis Douglas (4 November 1833 – 21 January 1904) was an American architect from Maine.
Douglas was born in Brunswick, Maine, Brunswick, and was educated at the Foxcroft Academy. At the age of 18, he was apprenticed to a house-builder, ...
and built in 1873, with an addition by
John Calvin Stevens
John Calvin Stevens (October 8, 1855 – January 25, 1940) was an American architect who worked in the Shingle Style, in which he was a major innovator, and the Colonial Revival style. He designed more than 1,000 buildings in the state of Maine ...
in 1904, and a second addition added in 1938. The building continues to serve county functions; it was listed on 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 ...
in 1984.
Description and history
The courthouse is located at the southeast corner of Court and High Streets, just north of Skowhegan's central business district. A modern court building, housing the local district court, stands across High Street to the north. The original 1873 portion of the building, oriented west toward Court Street, is a three-story brick structure with stone trim. It has a truncated hip roof that once sported a cupola (removed during the 1904 alterations), with a cornice that has heavy brackets. The front and sides each have slightly projecting central sections marked by corner brick pilasters, that in front topped by a gable roof. A single-story gable-roofed portico shelters the main entrance, supported by groups of chamfered granite posts. The upper two levels have windows set in tall round-arch openings.
To the rear of this main block stands a 1938 addition, two stories in height. Its entrance on the north side repeats details found in the main entrance, and the second-floor windows are also set in round-arch openings, not as elaborate as those of the original building. Brick pilasters and corbelling at the eave are also features repeated in the addition from the main block.
[
Somerset County was incorporated in 1809 from parts of ]Kennebec County
Kennebec County is a County (United States), county located in the South-central portion of the U.S. state of Maine. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 123,642. Its county seat is Augusta, Maine, Augusta, the state ...
, with its original county seat at Norridgewock
Norridgewock was the name of both an Indigenous village and a band of the Abenaki ("People of the Dawn") Native Americans/First Nations, an Eastern Algonquian tribe of the United States and Canada. The French of New France called the village Ke ...
. In 1872 the county seat was formally relocated to Skowhegan, provided that town could provide adequate space for county functions in a timely manner. Temporary space was deemed by the county commissioners to be inadequate, and a legal struggle ensued between the towns over the matter. This was resolved when former Governor of Maine
The governor of Maine is the head of government of the U.S. state of Maine. Before Maine was admitted to the Union in 1820, Maine was part of Massachusetts and the governor of Massachusetts was chief executive.
The current governor of Maine is Ja ...
Abner Coburn
Abner Coburn (March 22, 1803 – January 4, 1885) was the 30th Governor of Maine from 1863 to 1864 and a prominent individual in Skowhegan, Maine until his death.
Early years
Coburn was born on a farm in Old Canaan (later renamed to Skowhegan) ...
, a Skowhegan native and one of the state's wealthiest men, offered to pay for the construction of a courthouse in his hometown. The original portion of the main block was designed by local architect Charles F. Douglas
Charles Francis Douglas (4 November 1833 – 21 January 1904) was an American architect from Maine.
Douglas was born in Brunswick, Maine, Brunswick, and was educated at the Foxcroft Academy. At the age of 18, he was apprenticed to a house-builder, ...
, and was completed in 1873. In 1904 the noted Portland
Portland most commonly refers to:
* Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States
* Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...
architect John Calvin Stevens
John Calvin Stevens (October 8, 1855 – January 25, 1940) was an American architect who worked in the Shingle Style, in which he was a major innovator, and the Colonial Revival style. He designed more than 1,000 buildings in the state of Maine ...
oversaw a renovation and expansion of the building, in which two bays were added to the rear, matching in style Douglas' design, with a complete redesign of the interior. The building was then enlarged again in 1938.[
]
See also
*
References
{{National Register of Historic Places
Government buildings completed in 1873
Courthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine
County courthouses in Maine
County government buildings in Maine
Buildings and structures in Skowhegan, Maine
National Register of Historic Places in Somerset County, Maine