Photographing County Courthouses

   One of the things on my bucket list was to visit and photograph every county courthouse in the state that I live in, Tennessee. It might be a strange thing to put on a bucket list, but I'm a strange person. I love the architecture of these buildings, especially when they rise up from the town square of a small town in the middle of nowhere.

   Many can be very historic. Quite a few courthouses in the South were burned during the Civil War, so it is rare to find one older than 150 years old. It is also rare to find one with the kind of history like the one pictured above has. That is the Rhea County Courthouse in Dayton, Tennessee. It was built in 1891 and bore witness to one of the most famous trials in United States history. This was the site of the 1925 Scopes Trial where William Jennings Bryan battled Clarence Darrow over a teachers right to teach evolution in school. The trial was quite famous and inspired the stage play and film "Inherit the Wind". 
   Not all courthouses are famous, nor are they all historic. Some have burned down more recently and their replacements are not all that interesting architecturally(to me anyway), but I still want to visit and photograph them all. I haven't counted but I probably have at least 25 or the 99 counties done so far. When I have many more, I will post an update here.
   Below is the Sevier County Courthouse, with a Dolly Parton statue out front!