old courthouse

Every time I go to downtown Newberry this old building brings me a smile. Wonderfully built,classic looking. Helps to enhance the towns great classic small town feel. Worth checking out if in Newberry.

The Old Courthouse, which is situated just a stone’s throw from the Newberry Opera House, is an attractive photo op. This National Register beauty was erected in 1852, extensively remodeled during Reconstruction, and used for court sessions until 1906.The building’s fluted Tuscan columns support an attractive entablature and a massive pediment that has one of the most intriguing bas-reliefs you will ever see. Added in 1876, the year before Reconstruction ended, the colorful sculpture depicts an American eagle (the Union) clutching an uprooted palmetto tree (the state of South Carolina). A crowing gamecock (defiant citizenry) perches at one end of the tree and a dove bearing an olive branch (peace and harmony) perches at the other. The whole symbolizes, in scale of justice fashion, Reconstruction after the Civil War. A local amateur historian told me that the eagle’s head is hidden beneath its wing to symbolize Union shame for ravaging South Carolina.If you need a restroom and tourist info, you can get it at the Old Courthouse. The building’s Public Lounge, certainly one of the oldest of its kind in America, houses the Newberry Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Center. Entrance is from the Main Street side of the building.