The Cobb County Courthouse at Marietta: the Grand Old Courthouses of Georgia
| Publication year | 2021 |
| Pages | 0024 |
| Citation | Vol. 26 No. 6 Pg. 0024 |
The Cobb County Courthouse at Marietta The Grand Old Courthouses of Georgia
BY WILBER W. CALDWELL
Cobb County was carved from the enormity of Cherokee County in 1832, and Marietta was laid out as the county seat in the following year. A crude log courthouse was built, and a frame court building replaced it in 1838. In 1842, only four years after Marietta's frame court building was completed, the first train made the journey from Terminus (Atlanta) to Marietta, and 10 years later a grand Greek Revival Cobb County Courthouse was erected at Marietta in the so-called the "peripteral style," featuring columned porticos without pediment on all four sides.
Marietta's 1852 temple of justice was built of brick on the north corner lot adjacent to the square, which was left an open park after the removal of the 1838 frame structure. The columns, and perhaps the outer walls of the building, were stuccoed white, and a graceful double-arched stairway ascended to the second story courtroom entrance. The building reflected not only the Southern solidarity of cotton and the attendant agrarian ideal, but in Marietta it stood for substantial growth as well.
By the time General Sherman arrived in 1864, Marietta was no stranger to fire. The town had experienced devastating fires in 1854, '55 and '57. But on Nov. 13, 1864, only four days after Sherman's standing field orders restricting the destruction of private property were issued, Union troops burned not only the depot and warehouses, but more than 75 other buildings in Marietta. The courthouse was not spared. There is considerable documentation that Sherman himself, along with other Union officers, was appalled by the malicious burning at Marietta, but were unable to put a stop to it. Major Henry Hitchcock, a member of Sherman's staff, records in his diary that originally guards were posted to prevent unauthorized burning and vandalism, but when the guards "left with the column," much destruction followed despite active efforts by Union officers to extinguish the flames. Hitchcock's diary relates that Kilpatrick's aide, Major Rea, had personally attempted to save the courthouse. He "had three times put it out and tried hard to save it; but was kindled in the lathes under the plaster and â€'twas no use." The next morning Marietta was in ruin, and all that remained on the...
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