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| Old Rowan County Courthouse, Morehead, Ky. |
This one’s just kinda sad. What you see above is the beautiful former Rowan County Courthouse. It currently houses the Rowan County Arts Center. This building was built between 1896 and 1899. It is the only remaining 19th Century building left standing on Main Street in Morehead. It is the third courthouse to sit on this site.
What is shown above is the current Rowan County Courthouse, which looks like a gymnasium. When I first came to Rowan County for court, I couldn’t believe that this was the courthouse, and had to double-check before going in. There are no windows in the courtroom, and it feels like you’re going into a crypt when you enter. I wonder why they didn’t get a spiffy new judicial center?
I'd guess the current courthouse was built in the 1970's during or shortly after the energy crisis. (I went to a high school built at that time. Each class room had one window 2' w x 8' h.) The seventies was also a low point in the quality of architecture and construction (and many other things.) As an architect I've worked on the design of a few court or justice projects and getting daylight into a court rooms can be difficult because of the layers of dedicated circulation systems within a building. (Secure, private, public.) While this building is very disappointing it isn't very surprising.