The Bay County Courthouse is an historic yellow brick

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 ...

building located at 300 East 4th Street in Panama City, Florida. Built in 1915 in the Classical Revival style, it is Bay County's first and only courthouse. After a 1920 fire gutted the building, it was rebuilt in a much simpler form without its entrance pediment, gabled roof system and ornate central clock tower. The entrance columns and

entablature An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...

, however, were retained. Later additions have been built on its left side.''A Guide to Florida's Historic Architecture'', 1989, Gainesville: University of Florida Press, p. 13, Florida's Historic Courthouses: Bay County Courthouse
/ref> In August 1961 the Bay County Courthouse was the scene of the trial and conviction of

Clarence Earl Gideon Clarence Earl Gideon (August 30, 1910 – January 18, 1972) was a poor drifter accused in a Florida state court of felony breaking and entering. While in prison, he appealed his case to the US Supreme Court, resulting in the landmark 1963 decisio ...

for felony theft. The court's refusal to provide Gideon with legal representation was overturned in the famous

U. S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

case of

Gideon v. Wainwright ''Gideon v. Wainwright'', 372 U.S. 335 (1963), was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in which the Court ruled that the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution requires U.S. states to provide attorneys to criminal defendants who are unable ...

. Gideon was retried here in August 1963 and was acquitted. In 1989, the Bay County Courthouse was listed in ''A Guide to Florida's Historic Architecture'', published by the University of Florida Press.

References

External links

Florida's Historic Courthouses
Buildings and structures in Panama City, Florida County courthouses in Florida 1915 establishments in Florida {{Florida-struct-stub