{"nrhp_refnum":"79001756","name":"Tyrrell County Courthouse","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Main and Broad Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Columbia","county":"Tyrrell County","state":"NC","lat":35.91764070800008,"lon":-76.25217598599994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1979-05-10","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Politics/Government","Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story brick county courthouse in Columbia, Tyrrell County, North Carolina, built in 1903 by the B. F. Smith Construction Company at a cost of about $15,000.","why_significant":"It is the largest and most impressive building in Columbia and marks the dividing line between the early twentieth century commercial area and the late nineteenth century residential section. It was designed and built by the same firm as the Dare, Sampson and Onslow county courthouses, and it is the least altered of these four 1904 structures.","narrative":"Columbia's county courthouse is a two-story brick building completed in 1903 by the B. F. Smith Construction Company for about $15,000. It replaced a building erected in 1801 in what was then Elizabeth Town, and earlier courts met in private homes until 1749. Italianate in character, it has a hipped roof, gabled and parapeted wall dormers on each elevation, a dentil cornice, segmental-arched first-floor windows and round-arched second-floor windows. Unusual corbelled panels emphasize the chimney stacks beside the side frontispieces. Set on an open lot, it is the largest and most impressive building in town and separates the early twentieth century commercial area from the late nineteenth century residential section. The same firm built the Dare, Sampson and Onslow county courthouses, and this is the least altered of those four. Inside, a central hall runs between first-floor offices and a second-floor courtroom. Remodeling has left only the door surrounds and reeded baseboards from the original finish.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"B. F. Smith Construction Company","architectural_style":"Strongly Italianate in character","criteria":[],"status_note":"The interior has been recently remodeled and a new flat-roof porch replaces an earlier one. The courthouse is still the county's courthouse.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:58:58.380423-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/11/7185/47718511/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/79001756.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79001756/114fab88e9-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79001756/114fab88e9-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"HarmonyReignPope","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tyrrell_County_Historic_Courthouse.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">HarmonyReignPope</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tyrrell_County_Historic_Courthouse.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"94000219","name":"Columbia Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/north-carolina/columbia-historic-district-94000219/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47718511","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyrrell_County_Courthouse","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q20679851"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/tyrrell-county/tyrrell-county-courthouse-79001756/"}