The Courthouse Building
The courthouse was built in 1903, replacing a wooden courthouse from 1850 located just to the north which was so decrepit it was subsequently used as a shed to store apples. The new courthouse was built by Wolfville builder and architect Leslie R. Fairn. It combined Courts, County municipal offices and Land Registry as well as providing offices for Probate, Prothonotory, Treasurer, County Clerk and Sheriff. Fireproof safety vaults were built into the walls and were said to be "the best in the province". The Courthouse was built at a cost of $20,000 from brick and decorative pressed brick made in Avonport, Kings County and sandstone quarried at nearby Cumberland County. The courthouse opened officially with the first meeting of Kings County Council in the new building on January 12, 1904. The first major trial at the courthouse was in June 1904 when it hosted the trial of William Robertson for the axe murder of his wife. Found guilty in a dramatic trial, during which lightning struck the courthouse's brand-new ornate cupola, Robinson was hanged on September 12, 1904 in front of a rowdy crowd at the jail beside the courthouse, the last hanging in Kings County. Trials were held in the building until 1980 when a new 2.5 million dollar municipal complex containing courts, county offices and a jail was constructed in Kentville.
Read more about this topic: Kings County Museum
Famous quotes containing the words courthouse and/or building:
“It is told that some divorcees, elated by their freedom, pause on leaving the courthouse to kiss a front pillar, or even walk to the Truckee to hurl their wedding rings into the river; but boys who recover the rings declare they are of the dime-store variety, and accuse the throwers of fraudulent practices.”
—Administration in the State of Neva, U.S. public relief program. Nevada: A Guide to the Silver State (The WPA Guide to Nevada)
“A building is akin to dogma; it is insolent, like dogma. Whether or no it is permanent, it claims permanence, like a dogma. People ask why we have no typical architecture of the modern world, like impressionism in painting. Surely it is obviously because we have not enough dogmas; we cannot bear to see anything in the sky that is solid and enduring, anything in the sky that does not change like the clouds of the sky.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)