Mercer County Courthouse | historical building

 courthouse, historical building

The Courthouse (1909). As with several western counties, the first courthouse was a two story log building with the jail on the ground floor, built around 1804. The first true courthouse went up in 1809 in the town square, two story brick with a cupola and one story wings, shown in this view . This building burned in 1866, and a second courthouse was constructed.

This building also burned down in 1907, making way for the present Neoclassic courthouse of 1909 on the same town center site. This is a symmetrical building, north-south and east-west, in brick and stone. The identical long north and south fronts have massive Ionic porticos and the east and west fronts have smaller matching columnar porches . The symmetry even extends to the cupola, which looks the same from four directions. The main entrance is on the north side through the portico and the south side, shown in the photo, has exposed basement entrances (marring the perfect symmetry) because of the hillside location.

www.mapsofpa.com/countyseatse.htm
www.mcc.co.mercer.pa.us/

100 N Diamond Street
County Courthouse
Mercer, PA 16137
Phone: (724)662-3800
Fax: (724)662-1530