Old Bartow County Courthouse

Built in 1869, this two-story brick building at 4 East Church Street in Cartersville served as the Bartow County courthouse until a new one was completed in 1902. The county moved out because of noise from the nearby railroad. The building replaced an earlier courthouse destroyed during the Civil War. It is rectangular and box-like, with a low hipped roof and load-bearing brick walls laid in English bond. Pilaster-like piers frame recessed panels holding segmental-arched windows on the first floor and round-arched windows on the second, and paired wooden brackets decorate the cornice. Inside are heavy timber framing, tongue-and-groove planking and plaster walls. It is significant as one of very few Georgia courthouses in the Italianate style and for borrowing construction methods from commercial and industrial buildings. Its date also makes it an unusual early Reconstruction-era public work. A steel-and-aluminum storefront was added recently, and it now serves as a commercial warehouse, most recently for a furniture company.