Jackson County, created in 1851, built a brand new town named Webster to be its county seat. Court was held at Daniel Bryson’s home and at Alan Fisher’s store until the courthouse was finished. In 1887, a second courthouse was built, but the new railroad had bypassed Webster three years earlier. In 1913, a controversial election moved the county seat a few miles north to Sylva, a new town that had sprung up alongside the railroad. Jackson County’s third courthouse was modeled on the recently built Madison County courthouse, a brick neo-classical revival building. The picturesque building is situated on a low hilltop and dominates downtown Sylva. It is advertised as North Carolina’s most photographed courthouse, a claim no longer technically true since Jackson County built its fourth courthouse in 1994.
Multimedia:
Below is the Digital Heritage Moment as broadcast on the radio:
[audio:http://digitalheritage.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Courthouse60Mx.mp3|titles=Courthouse60Mx]Related Posts
Gertrude Dills McKee Gertrude Dills McKee, daughter of the founder of Dillsboro, North Carolina, married local businessman Ernest Lyndon McKee. She worked actively for various civic causes. . .
Jackson County Historical Association, 1987
WCU’s Mountain Heritage Award Presented To Historical Association
The Sylva Herald
Oct. 1 1987
The 1987 Mountain Heritage Award Saturday, September 26, was given to the […]
Jackson County Genealogical Society, 2012 Mountain Heritage Award Winner, 2012
Western Carolina University’s Mountain Heritage Awards for 2012 were presented Saturday (Sept. 29) to Rob Tiger, a Hayesville community leader who has […]
Railroads in Western North Carolina Early in the 19th century railroads were being built throughout the expanding United States. Western North Carolina was growing as well. Asheville, a crossroads for agriculture, was also […]
Horace Kephart In 1934, the United States Congress officially established what is today the most popular National Park in the country, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. As a result, over 500,000 […]
