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Wyoming County Courthouse

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1842–1843, Thomas H. Parker, builder; 1869–1870, D. H. Nott; 1938, Cecil P. Allen, engineer; 1992, Crabtree, Rohrbaugh and Associates. 1 Courthouse Sq.
  • (© George E. Thomas)

The courthouse's original brick core was essentially a two-story cube forty feet square. In 1869, Nott encased the building within a three-story stuccoed brick Italianate structure with a two-story rear extension. Nott's Italianate details included quoins, window hood molds, large ornate corbels, and a tall four-stage front tower capped with a cupola resembling the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates in Athens. With the aid of federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) funds, the building was refurbished and a rear wing was added in 1938. In 1992 the exterior was restored and another rear addition was built to serve as the building's entrance. Nott's grand double staircase survives as does his courtroom with its ramped seating, jury box, and elaborate judge's bench. The courtroom's wooden ceiling is similar to those in the First Congregational Church ( SQ3) and the post office ( SQ5) in Harford, Susquehanna County. Behind the courthouse, Edward Gallagher's Civil War monument (1897) features a soldier and a sailor standing guard at the raised base of a multistage shaft and an infantryman at the top. Once picturesquely landscaped, the park was unfortunately reshaped in an overly busy way in the early 1990s.

Writing Credits

Author: 
George E. Thomas
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Data

What's Nearby

Piatt House
Prince Hotel

Citation

George E. Thomas, "Wyoming County Courthouse", [Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/PA-02-WY1.

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, 545-546.

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