Oliver P. Williams, County Courthouses of Pennsylvania: A Guide. (Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, 2001) xi, 244 pp, glossary, index, illustrated; paperback, $19.95 (ISBN 0-8117-2738-6)
This guidebook will serve researchers as well as tourists. Oliver Williams, retired professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania, has compiled histories and descriptions of courthouses in all sixty-seven counties in the Commonwealth. He has arranged them admirably in alphabetical order, with photographs of each courthouse, often with additional photographs of architectural details such as cupolas or cornices. A helpful glossary of architectural terms is also illustrated with photographs of parts of Pennsylvania's courthouses.
Williams has a capacious sense of the county courthouse. He takes note of the courthouse square, often arrayed with lofty trees and humble benches, ornate fountains or monuments to military veterans. Williams also includes county prisons, in former days usually next to the courthouse. Worthy of his attention as well are statues, whether that of Benjamin Franklin atop the courthouse in Franklin County or the nude hero standing before the courthouse in Dauphin County.
Not surprisingly, given its size and complexity, much attention goes to the courthouse of Philadelphia County. While it gets some twenty pages of discussion, most counties, including Cumberland, suffice with two. Williams gives a good description of the Cumberland County courthouse of 1846; it is his primary interest when he turns to Carlisle. Oddly, Williams declares Cumberland's courthouse of 1961 "but a faint copy" of the one built in 1942 in Dauphin County, to him "a must-see for any courthouse fan."
Despite enthusiasm for the county courthouse in Harrisburg, Williams has a low opinion of the architectural firm of Lawrie and Green, designer of the newer courthouses in Cumberland and Dauphin counties. Regarding the courthouse in Indiana County, also by Lawrie and Green and a near twin to Cumberland's courthouse of 1961, Williams refers to the firm's "very generic modern government buildings ... with practically no distinguishing features." He adds, "One assumes they were designing what their clients wanted." Yet, Williams has classical tastes-no drawback-and he is kind in dubbing such soulless boxes as found in Bucks County as "startlingly modern."
On April 6, 1784, in the county courthouse in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, the Board of Trustees of the fledgling Dickinson College met and asked two of its members, John Dickinson and Benjamin Rush, to devise a seal for the college.
Henry George Ganss (22 February, 1855-25 December, 1912) was a Roman Catholic priest of the Diocese of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, as well as a musician and historian. For twenty years he served as pastor of Saint Patrick’s parish in Carlisle, and then he became pastor of Saint Mary’s parish in Lancaster.