Lee County Courthouse

Lee County Courthouse sits on Courthouse Square in Leesburg, Georgia. Built in 1917-18, it was designed by J. J. Baldwin, with R. W. Wimbish as contractor. The Neo-Classical building is faced in brick with stone trim. Its projecting entrance has a Doric tetrastyle portico, and brick quoins mark the entrance and end pavilions. Keystones emphasize the second-floor windows, and a bracketed entablature with a cartouche sits over the entry. A small square domed clock tower rises in three stages from the center of the hipped roof, with clocks in the second stage framed by coupled pilasters. Inside, the plan is cross-shaped, and all four entrances remain open. Interiors include plaster walls, wood benchrailing, tile and terrazzo floors, and two staircases to a paneled second-floor courtroom. Rear additions have been made, and a small annex and a modern jail stand behind it. The courthouse was listed as a representative example of courthouses built during and after World War I, when Neo-Classical design remained favored despite smaller scale caused by higher costs. It remains a source of local pride.