Up to 39 as of May 7, 2006

Hey all,

I'm up to 39 courthouses now...it's hard to keep up blogging when you get 37 courthouses in 30 days (which I did! With lots of help!). So stay tuned...we've got some fun ones coming up soon, including Kellie Pickler with the Stanly County Courthouse. Yup.

7. Edgecombe County -- Tarboro -- 4/8/06

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgecombe_County%2C_North_Carolina

We headed out east towards Tarboro, and I noticed a big wooden chair that was laying in the westbound lanes of the highway. So I called highway patrol and told them there was a chair on the highway.

And the peasants rejoiced. Yay.

This was a really cool courthouse and a VERY cool town. I had never been to Tarboro before, and I have to say, I was very impressed. There are blocks and blocks of old, historic looking homes. It's not a streets-worth, it's BLOCKS. All with the southern charm with big trees with branches that droop over the yards, and an enormous village green with monuments and more old trees. The fountain behind us is kinda nasty, so we didn't swim in it. I know that's what you were wondering.

I also wanted to drive through Princeville, which is on the other side of the Tar River from Tarboro. Princeville is the oldest town incorporated by African-Americans in the United States. It was established by freed slaves after the Civil War and incorporated in 1885, built on an unwanted flood plain. If you recall, in 1999 Hurricane Floyd practically wiped this town off the map (yes! Stuff like Katrina has happened in NC, also! Just with fewer people). I wanted to see if the destruction was still apparent, and it was there. There were still buildings in shambles from the flood water, and it was a sad sight to see. But the townspeople have been rebuilding!

6. Nash County -- Nashville -- 4/8/06

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nash_County%2C_North_Carolina

What? NC has a Nashville? It sure does! I didn't notice any hopeful country music folks playing old standards on the corner, but Nashville, it is.

This courthouse was interesting because it didn't have a Confederate monument. But it did have a WWI canon and statue. AND a monument to Edgecombe County sheriffs that had died. Isn't that nice that Nash County liked Edgecombe County sheriffs that much? Well, the two counties DO share Rocky Mount (the railroad tracks in downtown Rocky Mount split the two counties). The two dates on the courthouse you can barely see say 1833 and 1921.

Right after we took this picture, we heard, "Laura? Is that you?" Out of the cafe to the left of me in the picture, came one of Laura's fellow teachers. She was confused why Laura of all people would be standing in downtown Nashville. Soooo, we had to explain. And it's very funny to see people you know when wandering around random towns. I'm telling you, Twilight Zone! We had also been talking about how funny it would be if we saw someone we knew in one of these random towns.

5. Franklin County -- Louisburg -- 4/8/06

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_County%2C_NC

Alrighty, so after my day excursion picking up Person and Caswell, I called my friend Laura on the phone and told her how excited I was that I was up to FOUR courthouses. I think Laura thought that was cool. She's too nice to tell me that four courthouses really is lame. I mean, come on, 4 courthouses is only 4% of the state. She said that she would be up for hitting some more courthouses the next day! Man, I was excited. Laura's a history dork, so she doesn't mind seeing courthouses.

I grew up with a NC county map next to my bed, and as a matter of fact, that same map is STILL next to my bed here in my apartment. So when I go to bed at night, I plot how I'm going to get to which counties most efficiently. First of all, I found that a circle is the best way to get counties. If you drive in a straight line and return along the same path, you get the courthouses going, but the drive back is really boring. So, you go one way, and drive back a different way, picking up more counties, so it's exciting all the way around!

Now, you also have to employ a bit of strategery. I know that I have friends in Fayetteville (like Jason and Katie) who will allow me to crash with them and then drive in a circle in some direction from Fayetteville. Now, I know I have Laura's family in Charlotte, and so a loop from Fayetteville going west and a loop from Charlotte going east should touch so I don't "strand" any counties between. I don't want to have to get 99 counties and then have to drive an hour to pick up Moore County by itself.

So, this is actually a pretty complex puzzle. After a bit of thinking, Laura and I set out to make an easterly loop from Morrisville in Wake County. And, after all that thinking, I think I failed in making a productive loop, since I may be stranding some east-central border counties. BUT WHATEVER! YOU SCREW UP, TOO! >:0 Ok, it's not really that big a deal. More road trips!!

Anyway, we set out to get six counties: Franklin, Nash, Edgecombe, Wilson, Johnston, and Wake.

And, this post is about our buddy Franklin County! Named after our buddy Benjamin Franklin. It's all about the Benjamins, baby. And if you thought Franklin was the county seat of Franklin County, you're WRONG! Franklin is the county seat of...take a guess...that's right, Macon County. Give yourself +5 if you got that right.

The Franklin County Courthouse in Louisburg looks really good for being built in the 1800s. I guess the renovations in the 30s and 60s helped. Wait, did I just say the 1960s renovation was GOOD?! Surprisingly, it was ok, because they didn't tear down the front of the building and put concrete up...they left the original brick! Very impressive. Have you ever watched Trading Spaces? Unfortunately, I have. Well, for some reason, the interior decorators always feel they need to take down any ceiling fan they see, no matter how much the home owner begs and pleads, "PLEEEEEEEASE don't take down my ceiling fan!" Similarly in a dissimilar way, the 1960s liked to tear down pretty buildings or cover them up with ugly. So I'm glad they "left the ceiling fan up" in this case. In the front, at least.

I really liked the little courtyards this courthouse had under those tall trees with ivy in front, with little benches. Word. And there was a really pretty house way up the road in the direction we're facing.

4. Caswell County -- Yanceyville -- 4/7/06

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caswell_County%2C_North_Carolina

After driving to Roxboro, I decided to head on over to Person's western neighbor, Caswell County. I had driven through Yanceyville once before, going to the University of Virginia, so I thought this was worth a shot. The courthouse was set off from the main road, which was cool, with another Confederate statue. The granite marker behind me remembers WWII vets, divided into "Whites" and "Coloreds."

This is the first of many County Seats that aren't in the county you'd think they'd be in. Yup, there's a Yancey County in NC, but Yanceyville's in Caswell. Mt. Mitchell's in Yancey County...and not in Mitchell County. We'll enjoy these idiosyncrasies as we travel the state.

The original jail is the little building in the trees below my ear.

I thought the courthouse was such a pretty building, and as I walked up to it, I noticed a big permanent newspaper article from a long time ago. Apparently, though the entire courthouse was redone in 2000, the townspeople are very proud of that there fence. The article is about the history of the fence, and whether or not it was there originally, or put there later, and there was a manuscript about an enclosed courthouse lawn sometime in the 1850s or something. And there's another article about the last poker game played in the courthouse. How very interesting. With that, I was off to Carrboro to enjoy the rest of that Friday.

3. Person County -- Roxboro -- 4/7/06

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Person_County%2C_NC

Here's where the modern era of NC Courthouse Chasing begins. As you can see, I'm taking the picture at arms length, pulling a stupid face, and I have date stamp on, so you can see I'm not lying when I say I've been to a courthouse.

You may think Courthouses don't actually move, so there's not really much CHASING, per se, but you're wrong. The courthouse keeps moving and not getting in the picture. So I have to stand there with cars driving by while I'm looking strange, taking a picture of myself in front of a courthouse that won't stand still. Hey, it's not me. It's the courthouse. But I like being the only tourist many of these towns have seen for a long time.

Growing up, I would hear about my cousins from Florida who would visit my grandmother in Cary (we always saw them in Cary...no one would ever visit us in our Fayetteville house) going up to Roxboro to visit their other side of the family. I was always so jealous that they came all the way up from FL to visit a place in NC I had never been, but that they saw all the time. So I was thrilled to finally get to come here.

I drove to Person County because I got off work early on a Friday and wanted something fun to do. So I drove up to Person County. It's the obvious choice.

I've also never seen so many tobacco barns in my life! And I live in the Tobacco State! They're everywhere up in Person County, like white on rice.

There's a Confed statue to my left, but it's not facing north. I think it was more of an east or northeast. They had another soldier over on the other side by that brick building. He apparently volunteered to get get killed after two other groups of soldiers had already been sent out and were killed. So they built a statue of this legendary Person County Man. I thought that was pretty neat.

There's also a really strange intersection that I'm facing in this picture. Four roads come together in a weird way and there's always staggered traffic...you know, the kind of traffic when you're waiting to turn left where the cars are spaced as far apart as they can be without giving enough time for you to turn left through them. That's so annoying. But none of the directions have a turn lane, so you stop traffic behind you if you try to turn left. I decided that I would approach the light from all 4 directions and turn left just to entertain myself. So I did. And I successfully stopped the traffic behind me. While I waited for the light to turn yellow so I could creep into the intersection, turn left as it turned red, and leave the person behind me at the light. I have a feeling people in Roxboro don't like it when people do that.

2. Chatham County -- Pittsboro -- 3/11/06

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatham_County%2C_NC

UPDATE (3/25/2010 Fire): We will miss you, Chatham County Courthouse! It's difficult to say goodbye to a community symbol, but I look forward to seeing you when you return!

After a 2 month hiatus from Courthouse Chasing, I busted out my digital camera to go get a new one...Chatham County! I've driven past this courthouse a billion times going from Fayetteville to Chapel Hill, and so it was an easy one to find...right in the middle of the traffic circle.

Some have asked how I find the courthouses. It's pretty easy...just drive the middle of the town and drive around. Unless you have a new fangled courthouse like many do, and you usually just drive just outside the old part of town, and there it is. Reason? When a courthouse gets too small, counties look for some more land, which usually happens to be just outside the historic downtown. A lot of this growth happened as the Baby Boomers were growing up in the 1960s, so just look for a nasty looking building made of concrete with skinny windows, and you've probably found it. Honestly, did those EVER look attractive?

Lucky for Chatham County, they still use their nice one in the middle of the traffic circle.

I went hiking with 3 friends, Walter, Erika and Matt on March 11. Matt just got married to my friend I've grown up with, Adrienne, this past weekend. Congrats! Anyway, we were meeting Walter downtown at the General Store Cafe (neat place), so I had Matt get a quick pic. We went on an 8mile hike along the Haw River from Highway 64 to 15-501 and I introduced them all to Geocaching. Yeehaw! That's a great hike...you should really do it. There are rapids and kayakers and lots of rocks to play on. I definitely fell in like a moron. You have to cross creeks walking along trees. If you don't like that, then it's probably not for you.

Notice the Confederate statue in front of the courthouse. Many of them face north (as does this one and the one at UNC) to welcome the Yankees back to the South and show no hard feelings. These statues weren't typically built right after the Civil War...because the Southerners hated the stupid Carpetbagging Yanks. They were typically built around the 1910s as the Confeds were starting to kick the bucket and as a way to foster Southern Pride. Of course, totally disregarding the whole race thing...the early 20th century wasn't known for its positive race relations. Now, these statues and Confederate flags cause controversy. When I was in Connecticut visiting the cemetery where my grandfather is buried, there's a Yankee statue there facing South. Isn't that nice? Yup, they do it too, up there, but I bet there's less controversy.

1. Granville County -- Oxford -- 1/7/06

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granville_County%2C_NC

Granville County was courthouse #1! For all y'all reppin' Creedmore, Butner, Oxford, Stem and Stovall, I did this for YOU! I wanted to take a picture of me in front of the entire courthouse so you all could see it, but it was too dark, so that's why I had to move close up.

So why Granville first? Why not Orange, where Carrboro is? As a matter of fact, I have 29 courthouses so far, and I still haven't gotten Orange.

I happened to be hanging out with my friends Laura and Patrick Br. at Laura's in Morrisville (Wake County...also not county #1). It was the first Saturday of the new year, and we had run out of stuff to do at 11pm. So I said, HEY! I've never been to Oxford or Granville County! Neither had Patrick or Laura, and we knew this was our chance. So we hopped in Laura's car, and we hoofed it up to the bustling town of Oxford, home of our mutual friend Jimmy from Chapel of the Cross.

Maybe Oxford is bustling by day (I think Jimmy disagrees), but at midnight, it was dead as a doornail. I really thought it was a neat little town, with a pretty red courthouse. All we saw were two cop cars sitting in a lot near the courthouse talking. We could have just laid in the street and sang show tunes, since there was no traffic, but we decided against it, since we looked out of place to begin with. Honestly, who takes pictures of themselves in front of a courthouse at midnight, especially out of towners? It was quite enjoyable. So I can truly say I enjoyed Oxford!

I may go back later and take a picture during the day so you can actually see it. And get Laura and Patrick in it, since they're awesome.

We then left and did what many Granville Countiers do...go to the first gas station over Kerr Lake on Highway 15 in Virginia and buy lottery tickets. We didn't win. It was a long drive home after losing my scratch-off :(. We also thought about running onto the runway at the airport near Clarksville, VA since it's right on the highway with no fence and it was 1am, but after getting out of the car, we decided that was probably a felony and decided against it.

The best thing about going to random counties is walking around and interacting with people since it feels like the Twilight Zone...like you're not really supposed to be there...like you're in an alternate universe or something. Was I really supposed to talk to that random person at the gas station who commented on our UNC stuff? Will my dollar I bought my losing scratch-off ticket really positively affect a student in VA's school system? You should try going to random places...it's wild.