Jones County Courthouse

Jones County Courthouse in Gray, Georgia, was built in 1906 for $35,000 to a design by J. W. Golucke & Co., with the Atlanta Fireproofing Co. as contractor. It is a brick building with stone trim in the Romanesque style. Its cross plan survives despite additions on two sides and the rear. Corner turrets, a three-stage central clock tower with an open belvedere, pyramidal cap and hooded clocks, and a hipped roof with intersecting gables define its form. On the facade, two-story pedimented pavilions flank a projecting one-story entrance porch with a round-arched opening, and the upper level has triple blind arcades divided by Corinthian pilasters. Inside, the rotunda's pressed metal ceiling has been sprayed with liquid cement, and acoustical tile replaces the courtroom's metal ceiling. The building matters because of Golucke's courthouse work, whose plan resembles his 1890s designs, and because the site near the railroad was a main reason the county seat moved from Clinton to Gray in 1905. The grounds also hold a later jail, an annex and monuments.