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Burke Courthouse
South Sterling Street, Morganton,
NC,
USA
Latitude & Longitude:
35° 43' 33.168",
-81° 39' 42.66"
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North Carolina State
Historical Marker |
Marker Text: "Built of local cut stone, ca. 1835, by James Binnie. August terms of State Supreme Court held here, 1847-61. Raided by Union force 1865. Remodeled 1901." The oldest courthouse in western North Carolina stands in Courthouse Square in Morganton in Burke County. The General Assembly appointed commissioners to supervise the construction of the courthouse, which was to have a maximum price-tag of $8,000. Tradition has it that James Binnie, a Scottish stonemason and craftsman, hauled locally cut stone from a quarry about five miles away to Courthouse Square. With only one load being carried per day, construction was delayed and drastically over-budget. It is said that Binnie was bankrupt by the time the courthouse was completed in 1837, construction having cost $15,000 and payments having been made piecemeal. The courthouse was in continuous use from 1837 until 1976. The North Carolina Supreme Court held its August sessions in the courthouse from 1847 through 1861. That the building had been constructed to be fireproof was futile when, in April 1865, a delegation of General George Stoneman’s cavalry raided the courthouse and destroyed most of the county’s records.
The courthouse was extensively remodeled in 1903 (contrary to the 1901date recorded on the marker) under the direction of Charlotte architect Frank Millburn. Following the construction of a new courthouse in 1976, the old 1837 facility was restored in two phases—the exterior in 1977-1978 and the interior in 1983-1984—and it now houses a Heritage Museum, the Burke County Visitor Center, and the offices of the Historic Burke Foundation. The former courtroom is now an auditorium, used for theatrical events and as a meeting place for local organizations.
References:
J. Randall Cotton, Historic Burke: An Architectural Sites Inventory of Burke County (1987)
Catherine Bishir, Michael Southern, and Jennifer Martin, A Guide to the Historic Architecture of Western North Carolina (1999)
Historic Burke Foundation website:
http://www.historicburke.org/
Edward W. Phifer, Burke: The History of a North Carolina County, 1777-1920 (1982)
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Burke Courthouse North Carolina
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