The photographer worked hard to get this angle of a classic building. See if you can contort your eyesight to determine the location of this Mystery Photo. Send your thoughts to ebrack2@gmail.com.
The last mystery was sent in by Jay Altman of Columbia, S.C. and is the Marion County courthouse in South Carolina. (One reader said it was the Marion County courthouse, but in Georgia.)
On target, correct were Susan McBreyer, Sugar Hill; George Graf, Palmyra, Va.; and Allan Peel of San Antonio, Texas, who added this: “This Greek Revival-style building was designed by Swedish-born, Charleston-based civil engineer P.H. Hammerskold (c.1815 – 1860) and was completed in 1853. It is the third courthouse built on this site, replacing two earlier c.1800 and 1823 buildings that had become too small to handle the administrative needs of the fast-growing Marion County.
“Worth mentioning:
- It’s brick pretending to be stone: The courthouse is actually made of brick, but it was stuccoed and scored to look like it is cut stone, a practice that was relatively common in the late-18th and early 19th centuries to economically add dignity and stature to publicly funded buildings.
- It’s hidden, but in plain sight: It is hard not to notice the dramatic, double wrought-iron stairway that leads to the upper level of the courthouse. It was crafted by Baltimore iron-worker Hayward Bartlett, who had his name woven into the iron treads of each step, almost hiding them in plain sight, so hefforts may never be forgotten.
- It wasn’t a movie set, but it sure looks like one: The courthouse is often (incorrectly linked to the 1962 film, To Kill a Mockingbird, because it looks uncannily like the courthouse featured in the fictional town in Alabama.”
- Share a Mystery Photo: If you have a photo that you believe will stump readers, send it along (but make sure to tell us what it is because it may stump us too!) Click here to send an email and please mark it as a photo submission. Thanks.
