Historic Courthouse Repairs Come in $1.9M Under Budget
Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer
In downtown Anderson, the county’s most iconic civic monument has been given and internal and external makeover: new tile roofing to stop the leaks, structural work to steady the clock tower, repointed brick, and the restoration of the copper trim that rings the old building like a modest piece of jewelry. The Historic Anderson County Courthouse, now said to be shining brighter than it has in nearly a century, has emerged from the repair work with a certain freshly scrubbed dignity—less relic than elder statesman.
Only a few tweaks on the trim are left and the project will be complete.
The project, financed with a $8.3 million bond, came in at $6.6 million, leaving county officials with $1.9 million in savings they say will go not into another project but toward paying down the bond itself. The road behind the courthouse has reopened, easing traffic and adding parking, while landscaping should be finished in two to three weeks, the last bit of polish on a job that County Administrator Rusty Burns says will “really pop” once the botanicals are in place.
The courthouse itself has been performing for a very long time. Built in 1898 for $26,000, and designed by the architect Frank P. Milburn, it replaced earlier courthouse buildings from 1826 and 1852 on the downtown square. Its history is punctuated by repeated acts of maintenance and reinvention: a $100,000 remodel in 1904 after a 1902 fire, central heating by 1920, a 1939 addition on the east side, and further annex and facade work in 1940.
More recent restoration efforts began after the county’s newer courthouse opened in 1991, when $1 million in 1992 bonds funded electrical, plumbing, roof, painting, and refinishing work. Even so, officials say those repairs left structural issues untouched, which is why this latest round became necessary. In the manner of old public buildings, the courthouse has not merely been preserved; it has been repeatedly asked to prove it can still stand its ground.
