BALTIMORE COUNTY COURTHOUSE

Designed by a prominent Baltimore architectural firm, this Greek Revival courthouse is in a style then popular for civic architecture. The warm hue and quarry-faced texture of the ashlar limestone building provides an interesting contrast to the lighter, smoother marble pedimented portico, with its fluted Doric columns and a triglyph-and-metope entablature. The stone came from the quarries at Hampton, as did the inspiration for the octagonal cupola that crowns the building. Originally flanked by two bays, additional bays sensitive to the original design and materials were added later. Their plain pilasters, entablature, and pediments mirror those of the original building, although differentiated by smooth stone. A wing added in 1925 to the center of the rear facade was later raised and extended. The H-plan was finally realized in 1958 with a massive two-story addition abutting the rear wing. To the front of the courthouse is a public square, and to its west across the plaza is the Baltimore County Courts Building (1975–1977), a Brutalist design by Paul L. Goudreau.

Dixon and Dixon also designed the Italianate Baltimore County Jail (1855; 222 Courthouse Square) built of irregularly coursed limestone with a central tower. Along the square at 101 Chesapeake Avenue is the classical, two-story ashlar limestone U.S. Post Office (1937, Louis A. Simon, Supervising Architect of the U.S. Treasury). A Works Progress Administration project, the interior boasts the five-panel mural, History of Transportation (1939), painted by Russian immigrant artist Nicolai Cikovsky.