Layfayette County Courthouse - Oxford, MS
Posted by: YoSam.
N 34° 21.991 W 089° 31.118
16S E 268386 N 3805670
The courthouse square has been the center of Oxford social life since the city was founded in 1837. The present building dates from 1873 and was designated a National Historic Monument in 1977.
Waymark Code: WMQ304
Location: Mississippi, United States
Date Posted: 12/09/2015
Views: 1
County of site: Lafayette County
Location of site: 1 Courthouse Square, Oxford
"At the center of both the town and the county of Jefferson, the square features the courthouse and the Confederate memorial, as well as stores and law and medical offices."~ William Faulkner, Go Down, Moses
Plaque on the side of the courthouse:
But above all, the courthouse: the center, the focus, the hub; sitting looming in the center of the county's
circumference like a single cloud in its ring of horizon,
laying its vast shadow to the uttermost rim of horizon; musing, brooding, symbolic and ponderable, tall as cloud,
solid as rock, dominating all: protector of the weak, judiciate and curb of the passions and lusts, repository
and guardian of the aspirations and hopes....
WILLIAM FAULKNER
Requiem For A Nun, 1951
YOKNAPATAWPHA ARTS COUNCIL
Mississippi Arts Commission
1983
"The Lafayette County Courthouse is located in Oxford, Mississippi and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It was constructed in 1872 to replace an earlier building burned during the Civil War.
"The Courthouse currently houses several judicial courtrooms and related offices, including the Third Circuit Judicial District Court, and the Third Circuit District Drug Court, which both serve Benton, Calhoun, Chickasaw, Lafayette, Marshall, Tippah, and Union counties. The Courthouse also contains the office of the Circuit Court Clerk.
"According to the court's website, "Mississippi's Circuit Courts hear felony criminal prosecutions and civil lawsuits. Circuit Courts hear appeals from County, Justice and Municipal courts and from administrative boards and commissions such as the Workers' Compensation Commission and the Mississippi Department of Employment Security."
"As the structural centerpiece to the home of William Faulkner, the Courthouse also plays a significant role in Faulkner's fictional Jefferson County. The Courthouse appears in multiple works. These include stories featuring the lawyer Gavin Stevens (including Knight's Gambit), the dramatic ending to The Sound and the Fury, and elements of Go Down, Moses." ~ Wikipedia