Mercer County

US States / O-U / Pennsylvania / Mercer County
Mercer

Mercer County is named for Hugh Mercer, who was a soldier and physicians and who died at the Battle of Princeton during the American Revolutionary War.

 

Surrounding County Courthouses: 

N - Crawford County

E – Venango County and Butler County

S – Lawrence County

W – Trumbull County, Ohio

 

Created:  March 12, 1800                       Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Mercer County

County Seat:

Mercer  1800 – present

 

County Courthouse – Mercer  

 

Location:  100 North Diamond Street / North Erie Street

Built:  1909 – 1911

Style:  Classical Revival

Architect:  Charles F Owsley of Owsley and Boucherle of Youngstown, Ohio

Contractor:  Luyster and Lowe of Dayton, Ohio

 

Description:  The building faces north and is a three story red colored brick and light gray colored sandstone structure. The building is located on a small hill in the center of Mercer. The north front and south side have large porticos supported by four high columns supporting a pediment at the roof line. The east and west sides have small porches. There is a wide horizontal cornice running below the flat roof line. On the center of the roof is a high octagonal dome with clock and small cupola at the top. In the interior, the first story has a wide “T” shaped hallway with the rotunda at the top of the “T”. The rotunda is paneled with flat off-white marble. On the second and third stories of the rotunda are large rectangular openings, framed at the bottom by a heavy-balustraded railing of marble, and on the sides by plaster scagliola columns in antis, crowned with gold-painted or leafed Corinthian capitals. The rotunda is capped by a circular stained-and-art glass light in 12-sections. There are monumental stairs in the south center. The courtrooms are located on the second and third stories with the small courtroom on the third story. Courtroom Number One has a heavy, dentiled and bracketed cornice, and a shallow-coffered ceiling, both decoratively painted. Immediately below the cornice the walls are stenciled with tall repeating pattern of urns and fleur-de-lis, with each stylized urn connected by a swag with a heavy pendant or cartouche. A fleur-de-lis stencil also encircles the room above the paneling.  On the south side of the building is the South County Courthouse Annex.

 

See:  The architect, Charles F Owsley of Owsley and Boucherle of Youngstown, Ohio, also designed the courthouse in Mahoning County, Ohio, which is a similar type of structure.

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See:  National Register of Historic Places – Mercer County Courthouse

 

History:  The county was created in 1800 and Mercer was selected as the county seat. The first courts were held in Meadville in Crawford County.The first court was first held in a tavern near Mercer, then in a log structure facing the diamond which also housed a jail, and served as a Presbyterian church on Sundays. The first courthouse was a two story brick building with a cupola, built in the center of the diamond in 1809. The courthouse burned in 1866. The second courthouse was a two story brick Neoclassical structure designed by Barr and Moser of Pittsburgh in 1867 to 1869. The courthouse was destroyed by fire on December 15, 1907. The third and present courthouse was constructed in 1909 to 1910 at a cost of $490,000.

 

 

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County Courthouse – Mercer

 

 

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South County Courthouse Annex – Mercer

 

 

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 Photos taken 2010