In Kentucky, Courthouse Often A Part Of History.
Courthouse often a part of history
By Greg Kocher
These are six of 38 courthouse projects built by Codell Construction since 1998. They are:
Boone County at a cost of $14.9 million
Bullitt County $18.4 million
Cumberland County $6 million
Knott County $6.6 million
Magoffin County $7.9 million
Mason County $6 million
Fayette paved way
Fayette County's $69.1 million justice center was completed in May 2002 and has 247,946 square feet, or just about 1 square foot per countian.
Comments
Since 1913, the Mercer County Courthouse has sat in the middle of Harrodsburg, its portico looming over South Main Street. It was renovated after fire damaged it in May 1928, and since 1980, it has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
But next year the courthouse will be demolished to make way for an $11.9 million judicial center that will house circuit and district courts, the circuit clerk and family court. Mercer’s will be the fourth historic county courthouse in Kentucky to be torn down — after those in Clay, Magoffin and Trigg counties — as part of an $880 million program led by former State Supreme Court Chief Justice Joseph E. Lambert to build new judicial centers across Kentucky.
Preservationists say the historic fabric of some communities has been sacrificed to make way for the up-to-date centers. With federally funded projects, the impact on historic properties must be evaluated. But because the Administrative Office of the Courts program is funded by the state, no evaluation is required.
Oftentimes, even when the courthouse itself is preserved, other historic buildings are destroyed in the heart of town to make way for new judicial centers.
In Garrard County, for example, a new $11.5 million judicial center will mean demolition of a building where a tavern had operated in the early 1800s. Deeds from the period say the building was known as Buford’s Tavern, named for William Buford, who had donated land for what became the city of Lancaster.
“What a shame that we’re losing such a significant part of our history,” said Garrard Fiscal Court Magistrate Fred Simpson. “But I really don’t have an answer at this point on how it can be saved.”
And some question whether project development boards, the local groups that make decisions about judicial center projects, are truly representative of their communities. Those boards include local elected and court officials and AOC representatives.
Those involved in downtown revitalization programs or historic preservation efforts typically are not members of such boards. “They really don’t have an avenue to be a key player,” said David Morgan, the retired executive director of the Kentucky Heritage Council, the state historic preservation office.
And even when preservationists raise their voices to try to save a historic building, they may not win.
Consider Clay County, where Concerned Citizens of Clay County lobbied to preserve the 1939 courthouse built under the Depression-era Works Progress Administration. A temporary court order halted demolition briefly after then Judge-Executive James Garrison alleged that ownership of the courthouse had been illegally transferred to a non-profit corporation.
Ultimately, the courthouse was dismantled and a new $8.4 million center was built.
Before she was elected to the city council, Carmen Lewis, the mayor of Manchester, tried to save the Clay County courthouse from being torn down.
“I’m not over it yet,” Lewis said. “In a way, it kind of motivated us to get into the political field. But we still lost something. You can never get it back.
“Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice, the new building, but they’ve already had so many problems out of it. The roof has leaked I know on two or three separate occasions. I thought to myself, isn’t that ironic? One of the reasons they wanted to get a new one was that roof leaks and it’s going to cost so much to fix it. And here they had a brand new multimillion building and what happens? The roof’s leaking!”
A new judicial center is a huge change in a downtown landscape, said Roger Stapleton, chairman of Frankfort’s architectural review board.
“It’s frustrating for us to see a project that will have such a large impact not even approaching the board or any of its members, and that happens in pretty much all the communities,” Stapleton said.
Old and vulnerable
Security concerns are a leading reason for the new justice centers, according to the AOC. Design criteria call for separate entrances for judges, jail inmates and the public, and the courtroom is supposed to be the only place where all share the same space. Old courthouses tend to be less secure.
For that reason, it’s difficult to bring today’s security standards to old courthouses and not diminish their historic qualities, said Garlan VanHook, executive officer for the AOC’s Department of Facilities. VanHook is an architect who did historic restoration projects before joining the state. While in private practice, he restored the train depot in Stanford, and he designed the Lincoln County Courthouse annex there as part of a downtown infill project.
VanHook learned the difficulty of fitting the new with the old when he recommended renovating Livingston County’s 1844 courthouse in Western Kentucky and adding a modern justice center to it.
During design analysis “we saw how that building overwhelmed the original structure, to the point of ‘Gee whiz. You’ve got this monster hanging out back and around the sides, and it looks like it’s gobbling up the existing building,’ ” VanHook said. “That’s exactly what doesn’t need to happen.”
So a free-standing building was designed and is under construction, and should open in Smithland before the end of the year.
Among the biggest considerations for siting a new judicial center is to put it near an existing courthouse, to keep the downtown fabric of the community and to benefit the local economy.
Lambert, the father of the judicial center program, wrote to Campbellsville resident Joe DeSpain in 2006 that “small towns tend to become deserted unless there is a reason to bring people to them, such as banks, the post office, the courthouse, the justice center or some other attraction.”
In Campbellsville, a judicial center and jail are under construction in a historic district where several buildings were demolished, including a wholesale grocery from the early 1900s.
“It certainly has negatively impacted historic properties that are significant to the definition of the community,” said DeSpain, who has been involved with historic preservation issues for nearly 30 years.
“The argument that justice centers are kept downtown for economic development is fallacious, because justice centers are about prisoners,” DeSpain said. “They are not about shopping.”
VanHook said: “Many people come to the courts to settle disputes. Everybody that comes to court is not under arrest. ... To say there is not any economic benefit ignores the investment in construction and ignores the investment in the real estate adjacent to the courthouse.”
Input welcome
VanHook said he and project development boards are open and approachable to any public comment. “People just have to simply put out their opinion and give us some input,” he said. “And I promise it will be considered.”
In many small towns, however, few residents want to go up against those in power. That was the case in Fleming County, where there was little outcry about the possible demolition of an old hotel for a judicial center. The hotel had been the residence of a Civil War spy.
“When you have to cross people who are in charge, there’s hardly anybody who does it,” said Fleming County historian Brad Harn.
A Herald-Leader article about the possible loss of the hotel — and the fact that the hotel owner did not want to sell her property — led the project development board to select another downtown site.
“It still had some impact on historic buildings, but it was not a significant impact,” said Mark Dennen, development program manager and staff architect for the Kentucky Heritage Council.
Mercer County is one place where additional public comment was sought — and received — from preservationists, the downtown revitalization group known as Harrodsburg First, and others in the community. In addition to the project development board, a “site evaluation committee” was appointed by the city and county, said Mercer County Judge-Executive John Trisler.
“I really felt like it ought to be a community decision because we were going to be the eventual owners of whatever decision we make, and it was just a way of getting people involved, helping them to understand the ins and outs of what it takes to build a facility like this,” Trisler said.
The advisory committee recommended tearing down the leaking courthouse and putting the judicial center on the courthouse site. Preservationists say it was more important to keep judicial functions on the square that was home to courthouses built in 1789 and 1820 as well as the current one.
In the view of Helen Dedman, chair of the James Harrod Trust, a non-profit advocate for historic preservation, it was crucial to keep the court’s operations on the site “that our forefathers felt was the place to have a courthouse.”
“So part of our consideration was to honor the history of the site as well as the building,” said site committee member Amalie Preston, who is also a member of the James Harrod Trust. “I am satisfied with the outcome. It’s like another era closing. But I also realize that this is the practical solution.”
By Greg Kocher
These are six of 38 courthouse projects built by Codell Construction since 1998. They are:
Boone County at a cost of $14.9 million
Bullitt County $18.4 million
Cumberland County $6 million
Knott County $6.6 million
Magoffin County $7.9 million
Mason County $6 million
Fayette paved way
Fayette County's $69.1 million justice center was completed in May 2002 and has 247,946 square feet, or just about 1 square foot per countian.
Comments
Since 1913, the Mercer County Courthouse has sat in the middle of Harrodsburg, its portico looming over South Main Street. It was renovated after fire damaged it in May 1928, and since 1980, it has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
But next year the courthouse will be demolished to make way for an $11.9 million judicial center that will house circuit and district courts, the circuit clerk and family court. Mercer’s will be the fourth historic county courthouse in Kentucky to be torn down — after those in Clay, Magoffin and Trigg counties — as part of an $880 million program led by former State Supreme Court Chief Justice Joseph E. Lambert to build new judicial centers across Kentucky.
Preservationists say the historic fabric of some communities has been sacrificed to make way for the up-to-date centers. With federally funded projects, the impact on historic properties must be evaluated. But because the Administrative Office of the Courts program is funded by the state, no evaluation is required.
Oftentimes, even when the courthouse itself is preserved, other historic buildings are destroyed in the heart of town to make way for new judicial centers.
In Garrard County, for example, a new $11.5 million judicial center will mean demolition of a building where a tavern had operated in the early 1800s. Deeds from the period say the building was known as Buford’s Tavern, named for William Buford, who had donated land for what became the city of Lancaster.
“What a shame that we’re losing such a significant part of our history,” said Garrard Fiscal Court Magistrate Fred Simpson. “But I really don’t have an answer at this point on how it can be saved.”
And some question whether project development boards, the local groups that make decisions about judicial center projects, are truly representative of their communities. Those boards include local elected and court officials and AOC representatives.
Those involved in downtown revitalization programs or historic preservation efforts typically are not members of such boards. “They really don’t have an avenue to be a key player,” said David Morgan, the retired executive director of the Kentucky Heritage Council, the state historic preservation office.
And even when preservationists raise their voices to try to save a historic building, they may not win.
Consider Clay County, where Concerned Citizens of Clay County lobbied to preserve the 1939 courthouse built under the Depression-era Works Progress Administration. A temporary court order halted demolition briefly after then Judge-Executive James Garrison alleged that ownership of the courthouse had been illegally transferred to a non-profit corporation.
Ultimately, the courthouse was dismantled and a new $8.4 million center was built.
Before she was elected to the city council, Carmen Lewis, the mayor of Manchester, tried to save the Clay County courthouse from being torn down.
“I’m not over it yet,” Lewis said. “In a way, it kind of motivated us to get into the political field. But we still lost something. You can never get it back.
“Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice, the new building, but they’ve already had so many problems out of it. The roof has leaked I know on two or three separate occasions. I thought to myself, isn’t that ironic? One of the reasons they wanted to get a new one was that roof leaks and it’s going to cost so much to fix it. And here they had a brand new multimillion building and what happens? The roof’s leaking!”
A new judicial center is a huge change in a downtown landscape, said Roger Stapleton, chairman of Frankfort’s architectural review board.
“It’s frustrating for us to see a project that will have such a large impact not even approaching the board or any of its members, and that happens in pretty much all the communities,” Stapleton said.
Old and vulnerable
Security concerns are a leading reason for the new justice centers, according to the AOC. Design criteria call for separate entrances for judges, jail inmates and the public, and the courtroom is supposed to be the only place where all share the same space. Old courthouses tend to be less secure.
For that reason, it’s difficult to bring today’s security standards to old courthouses and not diminish their historic qualities, said Garlan VanHook, executive officer for the AOC’s Department of Facilities. VanHook is an architect who did historic restoration projects before joining the state. While in private practice, he restored the train depot in Stanford, and he designed the Lincoln County Courthouse annex there as part of a downtown infill project.
VanHook learned the difficulty of fitting the new with the old when he recommended renovating Livingston County’s 1844 courthouse in Western Kentucky and adding a modern justice center to it.
During design analysis “we saw how that building overwhelmed the original structure, to the point of ‘Gee whiz. You’ve got this monster hanging out back and around the sides, and it looks like it’s gobbling up the existing building,’ ” VanHook said. “That’s exactly what doesn’t need to happen.”
So a free-standing building was designed and is under construction, and should open in Smithland before the end of the year.
Among the biggest considerations for siting a new judicial center is to put it near an existing courthouse, to keep the downtown fabric of the community and to benefit the local economy.
Lambert, the father of the judicial center program, wrote to Campbellsville resident Joe DeSpain in 2006 that “small towns tend to become deserted unless there is a reason to bring people to them, such as banks, the post office, the courthouse, the justice center or some other attraction.”
In Campbellsville, a judicial center and jail are under construction in a historic district where several buildings were demolished, including a wholesale grocery from the early 1900s.
“It certainly has negatively impacted historic properties that are significant to the definition of the community,” said DeSpain, who has been involved with historic preservation issues for nearly 30 years.
“The argument that justice centers are kept downtown for economic development is fallacious, because justice centers are about prisoners,” DeSpain said. “They are not about shopping.”
VanHook said: “Many people come to the courts to settle disputes. Everybody that comes to court is not under arrest. ... To say there is not any economic benefit ignores the investment in construction and ignores the investment in the real estate adjacent to the courthouse.”
Input welcome
VanHook said he and project development boards are open and approachable to any public comment. “People just have to simply put out their opinion and give us some input,” he said. “And I promise it will be considered.”
In many small towns, however, few residents want to go up against those in power. That was the case in Fleming County, where there was little outcry about the possible demolition of an old hotel for a judicial center. The hotel had been the residence of a Civil War spy.
“When you have to cross people who are in charge, there’s hardly anybody who does it,” said Fleming County historian Brad Harn.
A Herald-Leader article about the possible loss of the hotel — and the fact that the hotel owner did not want to sell her property — led the project development board to select another downtown site.
“It still had some impact on historic buildings, but it was not a significant impact,” said Mark Dennen, development program manager and staff architect for the Kentucky Heritage Council.
Mercer County is one place where additional public comment was sought — and received — from preservationists, the downtown revitalization group known as Harrodsburg First, and others in the community. In addition to the project development board, a “site evaluation committee” was appointed by the city and county, said Mercer County Judge-Executive John Trisler.
“I really felt like it ought to be a community decision because we were going to be the eventual owners of whatever decision we make, and it was just a way of getting people involved, helping them to understand the ins and outs of what it takes to build a facility like this,” Trisler said.
The advisory committee recommended tearing down the leaking courthouse and putting the judicial center on the courthouse site. Preservationists say it was more important to keep judicial functions on the square that was home to courthouses built in 1789 and 1820 as well as the current one.
In the view of Helen Dedman, chair of the James Harrod Trust, a non-profit advocate for historic preservation, it was crucial to keep the court’s operations on the site “that our forefathers felt was the place to have a courthouse.”
“So part of our consideration was to honor the history of the site as well as the building,” said site committee member Amalie Preston, who is also a member of the James Harrod Trust. “I am satisfied with the outcome. It’s like another era closing. But I also realize that this is the practical solution.”
Labels: Justice, Kentucky politics
posted by KYJurisDoctor at 6:34 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home