The Walker Cnty. Courthouse at Lafayette

• Citation: Vol. 29 No. 4 Pg. 0028
• Publication year: 2024
• Pages: 0028
• Year: 2024

The Walker County Courthouse at LaFayette: The Grand Old Courthouses of Georgia Vol. 29 No. 4 Pg. 28 Georgia Bar Journal February 2024

GBJ I Feature

BY WILBER W. CALDWELL

The Walker County Courthouse at LaFayette, built in 1883, demolished in 1922. J. B. Patton, builder/architect (attributed).

Originally containing all of present day Dade and Catoosa counties as well as parts of Whitfield and Chattooga, Walker County was created in 1833, and a brick courthouse was erected on the square at LaFayette in 1838. Although this fiercely independent mountainous region had opposed succession in 1861, the old Walker County Courthouse was ironically one of only a few court buildings in Georgia to see action in the Civil War. In June of 1864, Confederate troops repeatedly stormed the old courthouse in an unsuccessful attempt to dislodge its Yankee defenders. The old building survived this violence only to burn to the ground 18 years later. It was replaced by a larger brick building in 1883.

As Sir John Summerson so accurately observed, "The use of the term 'vernacular' by historians is a confession of ignorance." Indeed, we know little of the 1883 Walker County Courthouse, and our ignorance tempts us to call the structure vernacular. But despite its...