Courthouse and Lawyers' Row facts for kids
The Courthouse and Lawyers' Row
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Lawyers Row in Clinton LA with State Historical marker.
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Location | Bounded by Liberty Street, St. Helena Street, Bank Street, and Woodville Street, Clinton, Louisiana |
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Area | 4 acres (1.6 ha) |
Built | 1840 |
Architectural style | Greek Revival |
NRHP reference No. | 74002249 |
Quick facts for kids Significant dates |
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Added to NRHP | May 30, 1974 |
Designated NHLD | May 30, 1974 |
The Courthouse and Lawyers' Row is a really special historical place in the center of Clinton, Louisiana. It's known as a National Historic Landmark. This means it's a very important site recognized for its history.
This area includes the East Feliciana Parish Courthouse and five old law office buildings. These buildings are located on Woodville Road. They are a unique group of buildings related to law. They also show off a beautiful old building style called Greek Revival. This whole area was added to the National Register of Historic Places and became a National Historic Landmark on May 30, 1974.
Discovering the Courthouse and Lawyers' Row
Clinton, Louisiana has been the main government center, or parish seat, for East Feliciana Parish since 1824. The parish courthouse is right in the middle of town. It takes up a whole city block. This block is surrounded by St. Helena, Bank, Liberty, and Woodville Streets.
The Main Courthouse Building
The courthouse itself is a very handsome building. It's built in the Greek Revival style, which was popular a long time ago. It's made of brick, but its walls are covered in white plaster. On top of its hip roof, there's a cool eight-sided tower called an octagonal cupola.
The entire building is surrounded by a porch with columns. These columns are in the Doric style. The courthouse was built in 1840. It was designed by someone named J.S. Savage.
The Lawyers' Offices
Right across Woodville Street from the courthouse, you'll find five single-story buildings. These are also built in the Greek Revival style. For many years, these buildings were used as law offices.
Most of these five buildings were also built in the 1840s. This makes them a very special collection of law-related buildings from that time. One of the law offices was built a bit later, in 1860. Even though the Greek Revival style was starting to go out of fashion, this building still used it.
The whole block of law offices is framed by other buildings. On one side, there's a private house. On the other side, there's a two-story brick building. This brick building used to be a Masonic lodge. Both the law offices and the old lodge building have porches with columns. The single-unit buildings have four columns. The wider buildings, which held two offices, have seven columns.