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Montour County Courthouse

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1871, O’Malley(?). 29 Mill St.
  • (Photograph by Matthew Aungst)
  • (© George E. Thomas)

When Danville became the county seat in 1815, the courthouse was not given center stage in the town square but sited on a lot near the waterfront donated by the Montgomery family. The current building, the second on this site, has been attributed to a builder known only as O’Malley but also to Charles Wetzel, perhaps because it shares features with Wetzel's First Ward School (1870). The building's proportions and tripartite facade with round-arched entrance and windows resemble the model courthouse published in Asher Benjamin's American Builder's Companion (1806), which was widely imitated throughout the Susquehanna Valley, including at the Wysox Presbyterian Church ( BR17). Carved brackets, patterned cornice, quoins, and the square base of the cupola gave the courthouse an Italianate look although its striking brick and serpentine stone trim are now muted by paint.

Writing Credits

Author: 
George E. Thomas
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Data

What's Nearby

West Market Street
Thomas Beaver Free Library
Mahoning Presbyterian English Church
Christ Memorial Episcopal Church
Danville Municipal Building (Masonic Temple)

Citation

George E. Thomas, "Montour County Courthouse", [Danville, Pennsylvania], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/PA-02-MT1.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of PA vol 2

Buildings of Pennsylvania: Philadelphia and Eastern Pennsylvania, George E. Thomas, with Patricia Likos Ricci, Richard J. Webster, Lawrence M. Newman, Robert Janosov, and Bruce Thomas. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2012, 504-504.

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