Lincoln County Courthouse (1923)
-
-
As you walk down Main Street, the Lincoln County Courthouse will be directly in front of you. This building is the fifth courthouse of Lincoln County since 1785 when Lincolnton was named the county seat. Construction of the building begun on September 30, 1921, according to the plans of architect James A. Salter of Raleigh. It cost about $350,000 to build. The three-story Classic Revival building has Doric columns on each side. The Courthouse is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Several monuments stand on the grounds of the Courthouse. A monument to the Confederate Soldiers of Lincoln County is made of granite and shelters a marble water fountain. This monument sits on the west side of the Courthouse and was actually built before the Courthouse in 1911. To commemorate the 1780 Battle of Ramsour's Mill, a plaque on a large rock known as Tarleton's tea table, sits on the north side of the Courthouse. The Jacob Forney Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution moved this rock from the battleground to the courthouse lawn. The Lincoln County War Memorial sits on the east side of the Courthouse and honors veterans from the Korean, Granada, Lebanon, Vietnam and both World Wars.
Representative Edgar Love introduced a bill to the state legislature in 1919 that directed the Lincoln County Board of Commissioners to erect a new courthouse. The old courthouse was vacated in May 1921 and torn down. The current courthouse was completed in June 1923, and the first court held in it convened on July 16, 1923, with Judge James L. Webb presiding. Alfred Nixon, the clerk, had prepared an interesting history of the courts and court buildings of the past which was read by his son, Joseph R. Nixon, followed by an appropriate address by Associate Justice of the Supreme Court William Alexander Hoke.
