Carroll County Courthouse - Carrollton, GA - Victorian Style Architecture on Waymarking.com

County of courthouse: Carroll County
Location of courthouse: Mewnan St. & Dixie St., Carrollton
Built: 1928
Architect: William J.J. Chase
Architecture Style: Italian Renaissance Revival

"Provision for designating a county seat for Carroll County came with an act of Dec. 11, 1826, in which the legislature provided that the county's first election be at the McIntosh Reserve at the home of William O. Wagnon. The legislation further provided that superior and inferior courts would held at the same site until the judges of the inferior court could select a site to serve as county seat. In 1827, the court designated a land lot near Sand Hill that became known as "Carroll County Courthouse" or "Old Carrollton." In 1829, the legislature designated Carrollton as county seat and incorporated the town.

"The 1826 legislation organizing Carroll County provided that until a county seat was designated and a courthouse built, the house of William O. Wagnon on the McIntosh Reserve would serve as the site for holding elections and conduction sessions of superior and inferior courts. In 1829, Carrollton was designated county seat. It is not clear what served as county seat for the next twenty years, though it probably was a simple log or frame structure. In 1847, the legislature authorized the county to levy a special tax for the purpose of building a new courthouse, which was completed in 1849. In 1856, the legislature authorized Carroll County to levy another special tax to finance a new courthouse. Whether sufficient funds were raised to build a new courthouse before the Civil War is not known. In the 1880s, a new two-story brick courthouse with a prominent clock tower next to the front entrance was constructed. This courthouse burned in 1927 and was replaced the next year by the current structure." ~ GeorgiaInfo

"Architect William J.J. Chase of Atlanta designed at least nine Georgia courthouses, including three on this tour. For Carroll County, he built an Italian Renaissance Revival palace with a 3,700-square-foot courtroom, one of the largest in the state. The ceiling in this room is 25 feet high. The exterior of the building exhibits many common features of the style: rusticated ground floor walls with smooth walls above, windows varying in size, shape, and ornamentation, round arches flanked by columns or pilasters, and an entry framed by pilasters supporting a full entablature." ~ Carrollton Area Convention & Visitors Bureau