Today I took my 4 children to our Pittsboro Library book sale and then over to the adjacent Kiwanis children’s park. We were delighted to run into Brian Bock’s wife Jeanna at the book sale and Sue Clark, a hard working Fearrington Republican who was volunteering there. The sign advertising the sale hung from the Chatham County Courthouse.
Went over to the park with my children when we started to hear the sirens – I have never heard that many before. And my son smelled smoke. Then we saw it. We left immediately. As we drove away we saw people running toward the Town center and then saw the flames and black smoke billowing from our precious Courthouse.
The Courthouse is believed to be a total loss now. Many in our Chatham Community are heartbroken. I remember this evening my own times spent in this building – serving on a jury while pregnant with my third child, in fact all of my children have been there for many a Commissioner meeting and other important events.
Conservatives and Republicans have not been in power here, but in this Courthouse’s last years we have made a lasting impression. The Chatham Conservative Voice held a community forum there last year and the videos can be seen here:
http://www.tccv.org/content/view/57/34/
Chatham County is really in mourning tonight. The center of our Town, County and within miles of the center-most point of our State has been lost.
~Heather
A bit more here on the history of the Chatham County Courthouse:
From County Histories: Chatham County The State Library North Carolina, En*Cyclopedia
“Chatham was formed in 1771 from Orange. The act became effective April 1, 1771. It was named in honor of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham who was a most eloquent defender of the American cause in the English Parliament during the Revolution. It is in the central section of the state and is bounded by Wake, Harnett, Lee, Moore, Randolph, Alamance, Orange and Durham counties. The present land area is 682.85 square miles and the 2000 population was 49,329. The act establishing the county provided for the courts to be held at the home of Stephen Poe. It also named commissioners to have a courthouse, prison and stocks erected. In 1778 a town was established on the land formerly belonging to Ambrose Edwards where the courthouse was. This town was named Chatham. Chatham Court House is mentioned in correspondence, 1776-1782. In 1785 a law establishing Pittsboro on Miles Scurlock ‘s land on which the courthouse stood was enacted. In 1787 an act was passed stating that the heirs of Scurlock would not allow a town to be established on their land. Therefore, the trustees of the town were advised to purchase land from William Petty adjoining the Scurlock tract and lay out a town. It was named Pittsboro in honor of William Pitt, the younger. In 1787 Pittsboro was made the county seat.”
The county histories are from: Corbitt, David L. The Formation of the North Carolina Counties, 1663-1943. Second printing. Raleigh: State Department of Archives and History, 1969. Powell, William S. The North Carolina Gazetteer. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1968.
