BLog Overview

For over twenty-five years I have traveled America to photograph CLASSIC AMERICAN COURTHOUSES, ones whose architecture brings dignity and purpose to our judicial system and respect for The Rule of Law. Most are or have been county courthouses, often the centerpieces of a town square.

William Faulkner wrote in REQUIEM FOR A NUN “Because there was no town until there was a court house and no court until... the floorless lean-to rabbit-hutch housing, the iron chest was reft from the log flank of the jail and transmogrified into a by-neo-Greek-out-of-Georgian-England edifice set in the center of what in time would be the town square.”

Friends have long encouraged me to share photographs of the special temples of justice. Some courthouses are still in use while others have been preserved and repurposed as county museums, city halls and historical societies. I will feature each month photographs of a classic courthouse with three or four photographs including a brief history of the structure. Occasionally, I add an amusing or unique photograph on the site such as the one of the front door of the Collier County Sheriff’s Office below.

In case you miss one, they will be catalogued under a “Classic Courthouses” link on www.privilegedbook.com my author website. If you have some classic pre-1950 courthouses in your state, please email me a some high resolution photographs and a short history of the building to robertwtarun@gmail.com; I will consider featuring it for a monthly post and better yet, come see it. I have visited over one hundred classic courthouses.