00:00 - Pennsylvania is home to some of the most beautiful courthouses in America.

00:05 - It's rare when politics, art and law meet at the front door.

00:09 - But it happens in the Keystone State.

00:12 - For 125 years, the County Commissioners

00:15 - Association of Pennsylvania has carried the legacy.

00:19 - A select tour of county courthouses.

00:21 - Pennsylvania's historic courthouses.

00:30 - Hi, I'm

00:31 - Mark Smith, chairman of the Bradford County Commissioners.

00:34 - We'd like to welcome you today to Towanda, Pennsylvania, home

00:37 - of the Bradford County Courthouse.

00:39 - Bradford County is located

00:40 - in northeastern Pennsylvania, is home to about 63,000 residents.

00:44 - Today, we're going to take you on a tour of our courthouse as part of the 125th

00:48 - anniversary of the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania.

00:51 - So welcome.

00:53 - The Bradford County Courthouse is a four story structure

00:56 - situated on about five acres of ground in Towanda, Pennsylvania.

00:59 - The cornerstone for the building was laid on September 7th, 1896.

01:04 - The building is constructed out of sandstone, which was quarried

01:06 - right here in Bradford County at a place called Berkeley Mountain.

01:10 - The building

01:11 - embodies several prominent architectural styles

01:14 - neoclassical features, early Renaissance rival,

01:17 - and the interior being completed in a bow art style.

01:21 - The statue of Lady Justice is situated on top of the Bradford County Courthouse.

01:24 - Dome is actually not blindfolded, and is a representation of the Greek tight

01:29 - knit themis, protector and defender of justice and fairness.

01:34 - Our statue was one of many styles and sizes that were readily available

01:38 - to roofers via ordering catalogs at the time the courthouse was built.

01:41 - This.

01:42 - This statue was made in New York City.

01:46 - My name is Matt Caro, and I'm manager curator at the Bradford

01:48 - County Historical Society.

01:50 - And I'm standing in front of the Bradford County Soldiers and Sailors Monument,

01:55 - which is a memorial to Bradford County citizens who served in the Civil War.

02:00 - Over 5000 Bradford County men

02:03 - served in various regiments in the Civil War.

02:07 - And the monument represents

02:09 - the five different branches of the service.

02:12 - Each statue of man on the monument represents a different branch of the

02:18 - service.

02:18 - The early history of the Bradford County Courthouse is very interesting.

02:23 - Long before the current courthouse was built,

02:26 - this lot had served as the, courthouse lot.

02:30 - Since the beginning of the county.

02:32 - The county was formed in 1812.

02:35 - And 2012 will be the bicentennial year of Bradford County.

02:40 - Shortly after the county was formed,

02:43 - a courthouse was built here on this site in 1815.

02:48 - It was a wooden building, and in the basement

02:50 - housed the jail for the county, in 1847.

02:55 - This, building burned to the ground in a great, fire that occurred here in Towanda.

03:01 - However, none of the county records were lost.

03:03 - They were all saved from the building.

03:05 - And a few years later after this, in 1850, the second courthouse was built

03:11 - just behind where the current one stands,

03:13 - and served until the 1890s, when the present courthouse was built.

03:19 - At that time, that courthouse,

03:22 - business had expanded so much with the expansion of coal mining and lumbering

03:27 - and agriculture in Bradford County that other offices were needed.

03:31 - And, that led up to the construction of this building in 1896.

03:36 - This building that we're standing next to, to my left, though, is,

03:41 - a annex building that was built

03:43 - for the second county courthouse

03:46 - after the second courthouse was built.

03:49 - They soon outgrew the space and needed more offices,

03:53 - for the county records and personnel to work in.

03:57 - And so they built this building right next door to the second courthouse

04:02 - and used it as an office building until the new courthouse was built,

04:07 - when the historical society took it over and used it for several years.

04:11 - Today, it's now used again as county office building.

04:15 - Hi. This is Kenny Foss.

04:17 - I'm the chief deputy sheriff, Bradford County.

04:20 - Just talk a little bit about, Mike and Chris

04:22 - and the monument here at the courthouse.

04:26 - And Mike, he was, And Chris, they were both struck down early in life.

04:30 - Mike was 36.

04:32 - Chris was 30.

04:34 - Mike was he was very active in his community.

04:38 - Northeast. Baseball.

04:40 - He very active with that.

04:42 - Left behind a wife and, two teenage children.

04:47 - Chris, he had just recently returned from, Iraq.

04:50 - He was a veteran of the Air Force and served with the Iraqi Freedom.

04:55 - He left behind a wife and a two year old boy.

05:00 - After they were killed, it was tough on the whole community.

05:04 - And, in 2007, we decided we need to do something to

05:10 - memorialize and honor the guys.

05:12 - For giving their lives for the community.

05:14 - We figured this monument would

05:16 - would be a fitting memorial for the community to remember them by.

05:22 - Raise funds, people from all over,

05:26 - donated different fundraisers.

05:29 - The Chemung County

05:31 - Sheriff's Association was a very generous donation came from them.

05:35 - And unfortunately, they just recently lost somebody up there.

05:39 - Yeah.

05:41 - We're going to see what we can do to help them.

05:42 - But, it took

05:45 - quite a bit of, time to design this monument and

05:50 - and the bottom, of course, but sacrifice is meaningless without remembrance.

05:55 - And to kind of go along with this, we we thought a street clock

05:58 - would be fitting here into one.

05:59 - Everybody comes in the courthouse and wanted to know what time it is.

06:03 - They're late for court or whatever.

06:04 - And, on the clock, it also says, take time to remember.

06:08 - Just thought that was an important thing to put on there.

06:16 - As it says, Mike was a deputy here for ten years.

06:19 - He was also, assistant chief with North,

06:23 - the North Rome Police Department.

06:25 - Northeast Police Department is called roll more.

06:28 - Will and Chris Burkhardt.

06:30 - He also worked part time for senior police department and had, formerly

06:34 - worked for Monroe and, so they that's what their careers were in law enforcement.

06:39 - Two of the greatest guys I've ever known.

06:42 - All the Bradford County Courthouse is said to be a great use of Victorian styling.

06:47 - Utilizing the space within the building.

06:49 - They use the staircase, which Y-shaped and, and the rotunda dome.

06:55 - To create this monumental effect inside a small building.

06:58 - And I think they were quite successful.

07:01 - The Y-shaped staircase and the railings are all, trimmed with white oak.

07:06 - That was,

07:07 - from Bradford County.

07:09 - The iron grille work that's on the staircase is very intricate.

07:12 - It's obvious that the Bradford County Courthouse, when it was built,

07:16 - the builders certainly paid attention to every detail throughout the courthouse.

07:20 - There's a lot of examples where,

07:23 - each detail is really taken care of, really paid attention to.

07:27 - And it's, it's a great building and, and a wonderful place to do business.

07:31 - The interior of the Bradford County Courthouse has a large five story rotunda

07:35 - with an eight sided dome supported by eight arches.

07:39 - Breathtaking views of the Susquehanna River

07:41 - and Towanda can be seen from the balcony of the dome

07:43 - as light floods into the rotunda, highlighting the beautiful

07:46 - painting of clouds breaking way to a beautiful blue sky.

07:50 - In 2008, Bradford County undertook a restoration of the dome

07:54 - and cornice area, and I think that, the company did a beautiful job

07:59 - redoing all the gold leaf, restoring the painting,

08:03 - and adding a

08:03 - whole brand new character to the building.

08:06 - The beautiful chandelier suspended from the main rotunda of the courthouse

08:09 - is made out of copper and brass, with a diameter of ten feet.

08:13 - It's 54ft above the first level of the courthouse

08:16 - has five clusters suspended from it, supporting 60

08:20 - teardrop shaped lights that illuminate the entire rotunda of the courthouse.

08:24 - You might be wondering how we

08:26 - change the bulbs or clean the chandelier, and it's actually lowered and raised

08:29 - from the very top of the courthouse via a mechanical winch system.

08:33 - That's actually raised and lowered by hand.

08:37 - Here in the rotunda area,

08:39 - there are several features, that are unusual about the building.

08:43 - And first of all, is this, bust here.

08:46 - It's, the Greek god of, Pan.

08:50 - And these are found throughout the rotunda area and also are reflected

08:53 - on the chandelier as well.

08:55 - And, this represents,

08:58 - the Greek god of shepherds and flocks.

09:03 - Kind of reflects the

09:04 - agricultural heritage of our county.

09:09 - Also in the rotunda area

09:11 - is this unusual phone book of, phone booth here

09:16 - that, was used many times in the,

09:20 - past in the days before cell phones,

09:23 - so that people, especially people here using the court,

09:27 - could make a phone call, to whoever they needed to call.

09:31 - But the phone booth also has, double pane glass,

09:34 - which is somewhat unusual for that time period.

09:38 - In order to keep it, soundproof

09:40 - for those using the phone.

09:46 - Also in the rotunda area is the floor,

09:50 - which is, mosaic marble.

09:54 - Each of them laid by hand.

09:56 - The walls also have marble on them.

09:59 - And so it's, it's a similar, type of material.

10:03 - And along the edge of the courthouse of the rotunda area, I should say,

10:08 - is, colored design, mosaic tile, also marble as well.

10:15 - Just in varying colors.

10:17 - And in the center of the rotunda is the staircase,

10:22 - which is, significant ironwork,

10:25 - made in different designs.

10:28 - The railings match all throughout the balconies

10:30 - and the stairway.

10:34 - And even on to the the lower floors below.

10:37 - The ironwork continues down the staircase.

10:41 - The flooring,

10:42 - the steps going down on the lower staircase are slate.

10:46 - And all of the other steps in the rest of the stairways are marble.

10:50 - And the entry to the courthouse are these two Gatling

10:53 - guns, which are from the Spanish-American War.

10:56 - And in 1906, a local congressman who lived in Towanda was instrumental

11:02 - in getting these two Gatling guns, that were taken, from the war.

11:07 - And as well, there were two cannons on the outside of the building, originally

11:11 - on either side of the courthouse. And,

11:15 - during World

11:16 - War Two, the two cannons, by popular demand of county residents were, removed

11:21 - and scrapped to help with the war effort during World War two.

11:25 - But these two Gatling guns, survive and are here.

11:29 - And, people pass them every day as they enter the courthouse.

11:33 - And also below on display here

11:36 - is, kind of a cross-section from a

11:40 - an elm tree that stood here in the front lawn,

11:44 - of the courthouse, had been here

11:46 - since 1852 and was cut down in 1978.

11:50 - So it had seen a great deal of history of the county,

11:55 - just by witnessing

11:56 - the front of the courthouse

12:00 - or here in courtroom number one at the Bradford County Courthouse.

12:03 - And, this room is one of the nicest rooms in the building.

12:08 - It has several features that are notable,

12:11 - one of which, is the woodwork in this building.

12:14 - And behind me is the judge's bench,

12:17 - where a lot of the hand-carved woodwork is found.

12:20 - The wood in this building is native to Bradford County.

12:23 - It's white oak.

12:24 - And, another feature.

12:26 - This room also is canvas sheeted walls, which are on this building.

12:31 - And the railroad ran so close to this building at the rear of the building,

12:36 - that noise became a problem, from passing locomotives.

12:41 - And so the architect felt that a way to dampen

12:44 - that noise was to place canvas on the walls.

12:47 - To help, quiet that down.

12:50 - Another feature of this, room is the lights.

12:55 - The chandeliers in here are both gas and electric.

12:58 - And this building was built during the Victorian era.

13:01 - And so they were making that change at that time.

13:04 - And so this is one of the earliest buildings to have electric in Towanda.

13:08 - This room was used for several

13:11 - trials, obviously, over the past 100 years.

13:14 - But probably one of the notable ones was,

13:17 - around 1906,

13:20 - 1905, where, there was a murder trial.

13:25 - Two brothers were, eventually executed as a result.

13:29 - And these were the last hangings in Bradford County that occurred

13:32 - right across the street in the county jail.

13:36 - Some other features you'll find throughout the Bradford County Courthouse,

13:39 - include this Italian marble that's on the wall.

13:43 - You find a lot of it in the rotunda area as well, but also

13:46 - here in courtroom number one.

13:49 - A lot of the walls are hand-painted as well.

13:52 - And even the ceilings in this room,

13:55 - include a lot of, hand painted work and,

14:00 - beams that cross the ceiling at different points.

14:04 - Also above me is the,

14:06 - cut glass windows and,

14:11 - the on the opposite side of this wall is the rotunda.

14:13 - And so these help to also reflect light from the rotunda area

14:17 - into the courthouse, here as well.

14:21 - Also in this room are the, seats that are wooden seats.

14:25 - And, when this courthouse was built,

14:29 - these seats were original furnishings at the courthouse

14:33 - as well as the tables and,

14:36 - that are used here in the courtroom.

14:39 - And a lot of the woodwork here around the front,

14:43 - where there are also gates as well, entering into the front of the room.

14:49 - These

14:50 - these were also original, to the building.

14:53 - So not a lot has been changed over the years.

14:56 - Many things are still the same as they were

14:59 - when the original construction took place.

15:02 - This courtroom has been used since the building was built in 1896,

15:06 - and the elaborate features in this room reflect the,

15:10 - feeling of Bradford County citizens at the time that Bradford County

15:14 - was very wealthy, as a result of the coal

15:17 - and lumber and agriculture industries.

15:20 - On behalf of the Bradford County Commissioners and the Bradford

15:22 - County Historical Society, would like to thank you

15:25 - for visiting the historic Bradford County Courthouse today.

15:28 - We encourage you to visit your own county courthouse

15:31 - to see the history and architecture of those buildings,

15:34 - as well.

16:03 - And I. I.

16:19 - Don't.