Catawba County Courthouse in Newton, North Carolina

Oct 23, 2015 Fri0Confederate Statues

Laurie and I like riding our Gold Wing motorcycle. But it is easy to get into a rut and just ride the same roads. So to force ourselves to ride to places we would not normally visit we made a goal to visit and photograph all 100 North Carolina courthouses within 1 year.

As usual, we got a little behind. We started in July 2015 and finished 99 out of 100 by June 2018. The last courthouse was in our home county of Wake and it took us until Feb 2021 to get that final one. But we made it! This blog is about one of those visits.

Many NC courthouses were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. The nomination form has some interesting facts about the various courthouse styles over the years.

Courthouse Information

Wikipedia says the following about the courthouse:

Catawba County Courthouse is a historic courthouse building located at Newton, Catawba County, North Carolina. It was built in 1924, and is a two-story, Renaissance Revival style granite veneered structure. It consists of a two-story main block flanked by slightly recessed two-story wings.
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. It is located in the Newton Downtown Historic District.

County Information

The North Carolina History Project lists the following information for this county:

Drawn from Lincoln County in 1842 Catawba County was once occupied by several tribes of the Catawba Nation. German, Swiss, and Scotch-Irish settlers were the first Europeans to migrate to the area in the 1700s. The colonial trade wars combined with diseases paralyzed the native Indians, and the Catawba eventually moved away to different parts of South Carolina. However, the county is named for the original inhabitants.
One of North Carolina's western Piedmont counties, Catawba is situated in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Its county seat, Newton, was founded in 1855, and it took its name from Isaac Newton Wilson, a North Carolina legislator who proposed the formation of Catawba County. Hickory, Brookford, Catawba, Claremont, Conover, Long View, and Maiden are other towns within the area. Catawba County has several lakes and physical characteristics that attract numerous fishers, boaters, and swimmers. These lakes and mountains include Lake Hickory, Mountain Creek, Catawba River, Lookout Shoals Lake, Anderson Mountain. Catawba's most renowned lake is Lake Norman which was formed by the Cowans Ford Hydroelectric Dam. It covers over 32,000 acres of water with 520 miles of shoreline making it the largest man-made fresh water lake in North Carolina.
There are several historic sites as well as annual events in Catawba County. The Bunker Hill Covered Bridge, Shuford Memorial Gardens, Maple Grove, and the famed Hickory Motor Speedway are all in the county. The Hickory Motor Speedway, operated for over 40 years, has been the starting place for some of America's most famous drivers -Junior Johnson, Ned Jarrett, Ralph Earnhardt, Dale Earnhardt, and Harry Gant. Lenoir-Rhyne College and Catawba College are two institutes of higher learning in Catawba County. Cultural events in Catawba County are sponsored by the Catawba Council of Arts, the Western Piedmont Symphony, the Maiden Public Library, and the Green Room Community Theatre. Octoberfest, Big Sunday at Balls Creek Camp Grounds, the Old Soldiers Reunion Celebration, and the Strawberry Festival and Craft Show are popular events held in Catawba County.

Our Experience

We visited this courthouse late in the day on a Friday. It seemed like a nice downtown with a number of restaurants and people walking around enjoying the beautiful evening.

It was Laurie's feeding time so we checked out Marie and Twannette's Bakery and Cafe. We had a couple of sandwiches that were really good. They also threw in a couple of cookies that were excellent. The dinning room was neat because it had a mixture of normal and cafe furniture. Tall mirrors along one wall made the room feel huge. Definitely drop in if you find yourself in downtown Newton, NC.

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Catawba County Courthouse in Newton, North Carolina

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Catawba County Courthouse in Newton, North Carolina

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Catawba County Courthouse in Newton, North Carolina
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Catawba County Courthouse in Newton, North Carolina

Oct 23, 2015 Fri 5:35:35 PM EDT Altitude: 973 ft Camera: X100SDisplay on Google Map
Catawba County Courthouse in Newton, North Carolina
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Catawba County Courthouse in Newton, North Carolina
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Catawba County Courthouse in Newton, North Carolina
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Catawba County Courthouse in Newton, North Carolina
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Catawba County Courthouse in Newton, North Carolina
Laurie, Bobby