When Garrett County first formed in 1872, officials focused on transitioning many of the duties that had been performed by Allegany County government to new people.
That meant Garrett County had no “halls of justice” to claim as its own.
The earliest court cases in the county were held in temporary places such as the Glades Hotel in Oakland.
When the first courthouse was built in 1877 at the corner of Fourth and Green streets, the people supported it. After all, court needed to be held in a courthouse.
As Chief Judge A. Hunter Boyd said in 1908, “With the exception of a House of God, no building can be erected in a county within which the interests of its people may be so vitally affected as the Court House.”
The 2½-story building was built of red brick and cost the county $15,000.
After nearly 30 years in service, county officials started talking about the need for a new, larger courthouse.
“Its cost may be somewhat of a burden to the taxpayers, but no well-informed person will contend that the court and other public business of the county could longer be properly conducted in the building which we have just vacated,” Boyd said.
But the people of Garrett County, both well-informed and not, did object. Four times prior to 1906, the county commissioners asked people to support the construction of a new courthouse on a referendum vote, and four times the referendum failed.
So the county commissioners and a group of citizens went around the voters and got the Maryland General Assembly to authorize them to purchase land to build a new courthouse and jail, which the legislature did on Feb. 16, 1906.
“This action set off what was probably the greatest display of citizen protest since Oakland was selected as the county seat, but the Commissioners went ahead with their plans, deciding to erect first the jail and sheriff’s residence, which were completed in 1906, and which will be a separate story,” The (Oakland) Republican reported.
A committee headed by Judge R.R. Henderson was appointed in December 1906 to begin planning the project.
Meanwhile, opposition to the project was still building. One citizen using the initials C.J.F. wrote a letter to the editor declaring, “the bond issue has been forced upon the citizens of Garrett County … and it is the privilege of every taxpayer to feel that he is a member of this Commission … and Garrett County has no money to burn.”
He or she wanted the money to go toward the county’s infrastructure needs, such as better roads.
The committee’s work continued, and it announced in February 1907 that J. Riley Gordon, of New York, would design the new courthouse.
To make him seem like he was part of the community, it was pointed out that Gordon was the son of Civil War veteran Maj. William Gordon, of Washington, D.C., who spent his summers in Oakland and Mountain Lake Park.
That same month, condemnation proceedings were started to get property owned by Joseph M. Crim.
Crim and the opponents to the new courthouse fought the case in the first courthouse. The county tried offering $2,400 for the property. Crim said it was worth $3,000. The jury set the final value at $2,800.
Though it increased the cost of the project, the county paid it.
Garrett Lodge No. 113, Knights of Pythias, laid the cornerstone Oct. 15, 1907.
In it, they placed a copy of each of the three county newspapers at the time (The Republican, The Mountain Democrat and The Garrett Journal), a statement of the financial condition of each of the banks in the county, a copy of the Masonic order and a roster of its membership, a list of attorneys of the Garrett County Bar, a list of county officials and a few coins.
Ultimately, the new courthouse cost $75,000. It was constructed from Indiana limestone and pressed brick.
Adjusted for inflation, that is more than five times the cost of the original courthouse. It included things such as electricity and indoor plumbing that the first courthouse didn’t have when it was built.
The 96-by-120-foot building was in the shape of a cross with the heating plant, coal bunkers, bathrooms and storage on the first floor.
The courtrooms were on the second floor, and the petit jury rooms and offices on the third floor.
The Republican called it, “perhaps the most impressive and commodious county court house in the entire State.”
The county accepted the building Nov. 23, 1908, and E.Z. Tower, clerk of the circuit court, was the first official to move in.
The courthouse that the residents didn’t want was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975 and remains an Oakland landmark today.