20 N Main Street

The History

In 1856, John L. May and John Hale each donated 15 acres of land atop a hill for the site of Hernando County's governmental seat, merging the communities of Pierceville and Melendez. The site was named Brooksville in honor of Preston Brooks, the then-popular segregationist Representative of South Carolina. The original corporate limits of the town extended out one-half mile in each direction from the courthouse.

Before the Neoclassical Revival Structure, you see was built, there were two other structures. The first courthouse burned to the ground in 1877 taking all the records with it. It is speculated that this fire was deliberately set by a white man to prevent a fall term of the circuit court from being held that would have investigated a recent notorious murder of former enslaved person and reconstruction activist Arthur St. Clair in June of that year. According to the Oct. 6, 1877 edition of the Sunland Tribune, it was not an accident. "From the rapidity with which the flames spread there is little doubt but that the incendiary made free use of kerosene oil. The floors had just been carpeted with a layer of sawdust in preparation of the expected term of court, and it is surmised that this offered a good medium next to the walls and partitions for saturation with the flammable fluid.” According to the Sunland Tribune on May 10, 1879, there was another attempt made to destroy the records and prevent the convening of the court. “Wednesday the building, in which county records have been kept since the burning of the Court House in 1877, was discovered on fire.” Fast rescue efforts by the locals saved many of the records and part of the holding building.

A second wooden courthouse was built in 1878 and is speculated to be a replica of the original. Another arson fire meant another loss of records.  That is why many buildings are dated 1911 even though they are far older than that because the County has few records prior to that date. Researchers looking for accurate dates are more likely to get them from Gulf Coast Title than from the county archives.

The remains of that second wooden building were dismantled to make way for the current building (some of the wood used in the Lanier-Dent house at 403 E Jefferson St.), designed by Atlanta-based architect William Augustus Edwards, and completed in 1913.  The new building’s large white columns, brick structure, and solid form brought reassurance to a population looking for peace and security, although extrajudicial violence persisted until at least the 1930s.

The Courthouse took on an additional purpose during WWII.  Barbara McKeown remembered, "Young boys like Leland [McKeown], 12-year-old boys, they were airplane spotters. They'd get up on top of the roof on the courthouse and they would spot airplanes. And he would know every airplane that came over. He could tell you what they were - even as a kid."

The third-floor courtroom was refurbished in 1994 with the assistance of a State of Florida Preservation Grant.  It was done observing the Classic Revival Style using engaged box shallow molded pilasters with simple capitals between which Romanesque arches are used with a scroll bracket as a keystone.  The courtroom has a carpeted wood floor. However, the original wood floors remain exposed under the seats where the floor slopes toward the judge’s bench.  Old wooden seats provide seating for spectators.  The north stairwell provides an entrance to the judge’s chambers and offices.  The south stairwell ends with a landing that accesses the south entrance of the courtroom.  A door connecting from the annex on the east side of the building provides access to the courtroom.  The wooden railing dividing spectators from the litigant’s area as well as some of the furnishings are historic.

The modern additions behind the 1913 building were completed in two phases. In 1974, a three-story addition was constructed and the four-story annex was added in 1988.

The courthouse steps remain a focal point for community celebration, activism, and political ambition. Myra Nell Rogers Register asserted, "Brooksville was right there in one little clump when I was growing up. Everything was centered around the courthouse."  Bobby Snow’s recollection agreed on the centrality of the building, "When you went to Brooksville, the courthouse square had benches, and they had little old tables around and there'd be a lot of people playing checkers. That was a big thing at the courthouse square back then. There'd be people from Spring Lake playing friends from the Hammock or Lake Lindsey."   And many political speeches have been made on the steps. William Jennings Bryan, a former presidential candidate and cousin of William Sherman Jennings, the Florida Governor from Brooksville, spoke there while campaigning in the 1900s. So did Jimmy Carter during his 1975 campaign.

CITATIONS/CREDIT:

Hernando County Courthouse National Register Nomination draft prepared by Mary Moses, 2016

  “Voices From the Past,” The Tampa Bay Times, Dec 31, 2009

“The ‘Crown’ of Hernando County,” Hernando Sun