Henry County, TN Courthouse - Paris, TN
The Tennessee General Assembly created Henry County on November 7, 1821, and named in honor of Patrick Henry (1736-1799), Virginia statesman, patriot and Revolutionary leader, member of the Virginia colonial and state legislatures and the Continental Congress, governor of Virginia.  Henry County became the gateway for the settlement of West Tennessee and beyond.  The County seat is Paris, TN.

The current courthouse building is the 'oldest working courthouse' in the state of Tennessee.  It is also the fourth building to serve this county and the third to occupy the current location. The cornerstone was laid in 1896 and the courthouse was first occupied on October 2 of that year.

The building was designed by Chattanooga architect Reuben Harrison Hunt in the Richardsonian Romanesque style. The design is extremely similar to Hunt's Elbert County Courthouse in Elberton, Georgia which was completed about a year prior.

Upon completion, the building contained three courtrooms, twelve offices, five fire-proof vaults, electric lighting, low-pressure steam heating and a complete plumbing and draining system. The clock tower is indicated to be 113 feet tall. The tower clock features four dials and strikes a bell on the hour and half hour.

Renovations include the addition of an elevator, air conditioning and several other modernizations. Some of the original interior woodwork survives, including doors, balustrades and banisters.

Two staircases in the north corners of the building reach to the third floor where a viewing gallery or balcony looked over the second floor courtroom. This gallery and the original courtroom ceiling have been obscured by a new drop ceiling making air conditioning possible.

Portraits hanging in the central hallway depict Patrick Henry, the county's namesake, and the three Tennessee governors who made their home in Paris: Isham Green Harris, James Davis Porter and Thomas Clarke Rye.

The courthouse lawn features several trees (three of which are dedicated to the governors mentioned above), a monument to the county's Confederate soldiers called the &quot;Private of '61&quot; and a Veteran's Memorial bearing the names of Henry County soldiers lost in the service of their country.

The tower clock, a &quot;No. 1 Striker,&quot; was ordered on 4 August 1896 via jeweler J. P. Jones from the E. Howard Clock Company. $670 was paid for the clock, hands and figures, 10% of which was given to Jones. The order shipped from the Howard factory on 19 August 1896 just less than a week ahead of schedule.

Originally, two weights would have driven the time and strike trains. The clock would have been rewound manually on a weekly or semi-weekly basis. Rather than the customary cylindrical weights made of metal or concrete, the weights were actually wooden boxes filled with horseshoes and other scrap metal and built into vertical tracks. In the 1950s, the clock was electrified and now two motors drive the time and the strike trains.

The bell was cast by William Kaye of Louisville, Kentucky. The alloy is said to contain the metal of several silver dollars donated by the citizens of Paris to give it a clearer sound. It was originally installed in the dome-shaped belfry of the Odd Fellows Female Institute, located at the corner of Market and McNeill streets in Paris, sometime after 1854. While installed at the institute, it rang for the school's purposes as well as for the Baptist church and for funerals. Six years after this building burned in 1890, the bell was installed under the cupola of the new courthouse.

Three bracketed photos were taken with a handheld Nikon D7200 and combined with Photomatix to create this HDR image.  Additional adjustments were made in Photoshop CS6.

&quot;For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.&quot;  ~Jeremiah 29:11
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