Abbeville County Courthouse
National Register Listing
Street Address:
Court Sq., Abbeville, SC (Abbeville County)
NRHP Nomination Form
Record Number:
S10817701007
Description and Narrative:
Constructed in 1908 to replace an earlier courthouse destroyed by fire, the Abbeville County Courthouse is one of six existing courthouses in South Carolina designed by Darlington native William Augustus Edwards of the Atlanta firm of Edwards and Walter. Frederic Minshall of Abbeville was the contractor. As with Edwards’ other county courthouses, Abbeville’s incorporates heraldic devices and symbols of justice to emphasize the symbolic role of county government. Edwards used colossal orders, formal symmetry, fasces, escutcheons, lions’ heads, swords, tomes and other explicit or implied symbols of law, reason, truth and power in his courthouses, and many of these features are evident in the Abbeville County Courthouse. The courthouse is a monumental two-story brick building located on Abbeville’s public square, and is connected with a brick arcade to the adjacent Opera House and Municipal Office Building. It was built in the Beaux-Arts classical style. A projecting entrance pavilion characterizes the façade with a colossal Ionic portico in antis of stone construction. The portico has two pair of unfluted stone columns, with Scamozzi capitals, which support a full entablature. A broad brick attic story rises above the entablature, and this story bears a stone course inscribed “ABBEVILLE COUNTY COURT HOUSE.” The courthouse underwent restoration in 1964 by Lyles, Bissett, Carlisle, and Wolff of Columbia and falls within the Abbeville Historic District. Listed in the National Register October 30, 1981.
Period of Significance:
1908
Level of Significance:
State
Area of Significance:
Politics/Government
National Register Determination:
listed
Date of Certification:
October 30 1981
