On this day in 1905, the demolition of Lawrence County’s first courthouse was underway. The building was torn down to make way for the much grander 1905 Courthouse.

Located at the center of the Public Square in Lawrenceburg, according to an article in ‘The Heritage of Lawrence County, Tennessee,’ the core building of this courthouse was built in 1821, and was intended to be a temporary fix until a better courthouse could be built.

However, far from being temporary, that building was constantly repaired and renovated until 1848, when the county court decided to build an addition around the old courthouse instead of replacing it with a new one. The Masons and Oddfellows paid for the addition of the third floor of this courthouse. For many years, these organizations used this third floor as meeting space.

The courts closed soon after the Union army took control of Tennessee and remained closed for much of the Civil War.

On November 3, 1863, Major Thomas Fitzgibbon of the 14th Michigan Mounted Infantry was preparing to order his men to burn this courthouse, but citizens of Lawrenceburg persuaded him that burning the courthouse would damage or destroy the nearby Mexican War monument. The major, being a veteran of the Mexican War, and eager to get back on the road anyway, decided to spare the building. As a result, most of Lawrence County’s original records are today extant to the county’s founding, although the courthouse was ransacked at least once during the Civil War, and many original documents were tossed into the streets.

The courthouse underwent several more repairs after the Civil War. Newspapers from the 1890s record that the goats of T.H. Meredith often slept in the open outer hallways of the courthouse. In 1904, it was determined that this courthouse was no longer big enough to meet the needs of the county.

On January 2, 1905, the County Court voted to appropriate $20,000 for the construction of a new courthouse. The old one was sold to the Lewman & Co. Architectural Firm of Louisville, Kentucky, who purchased the building’s materials for $225. The courthouse was demolished from March 13 to 17, 1905