Lee County Courthouse in Sanford, North Carolina
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:
Lee County Courthouse is a historic courthouse located at Sanford, Lee County, North Carolina. It was built in 1908, and is a two-story rectangular brick building in the Classical Revival style. The east and west sides features monumental hexastyle porticoes supported by Ionic order brick columns. Atop the hipped roof is a small dome.
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
County Information
The North Carolina History Project lists the following information for this county:
The growing predominance of the railroad had much to do with the formation of Lee County in the early 1900s. In 1907, The North Carolina General Assembly selected pieces of the surrounding Moore and Chatham Counties to create Lee County. Even though it was one of the last counties to be formed in the state (98th), Lee County has been significant to the economy and welfare of North Carolina.
Lee County was named in honor of the iconic Confederate General Robert E. Lee. The county's seat, Sanford, is named after the famous railroad engineer Colonel Charles Ogburn Sanford. Some other communities within Lee County include Broadway, Northview, Tramway, Lemon Springs, Swann Station, and Cumnock.
The small county of Lee has always held a relevance to the economy and events of North Carolina's history. The Wilcox Iron Works Company contributed much to the state's war achievements during the American Revolution. In 1855, North Carolina's first coalmine company was established in the Egypt (now Cumnock) community. Lee County's most famous accomplishment, both past and present, is brick manufacturing; the county is known to many as the "brick making capital" in the United States.
The Sanford Pottery Festival is one of Lee County's biggest tourist attractions. Started in 2002, it is now considered North Carolina's principal pottery festival.
Our Experience
This county was established in 1907, the 98th county, which surprised me. The front and rear sides look similar with the same columns and style. The side facing the highway is not used as an entrance and there we found another first, the grave of a Revolutionary War veteran, Jacob Gaster.
I also noticed another bell from the C. S. Bell Co in Hillsboro Ohio. I started paying more attention to bells when we visited Elizabethtown in Bladen County. They have a number 20 bell. This one is a number 34 and the wording of the company name confirms it was built after 1894. You can read about the bell manufacturer in the Elizabethtown post.
This courthouse has a prominent cornerstone and the county is named for General Robert E. Lee.
Lee County Courthouse in Sanford, North Carolina
Lee County Courthouse in Sanford, North Carolina
Lee County Courthouse in Sanford, North Carolina
Lee County Courthouse in Sanford, North Carolina
Lee County Courthouse in Sanford, North Carolina
Lee County Courthouse in Sanford, North Carolina
Lee County Courthouse in Sanford, North Carolina
Lee County Courthouse in Sanford, North Carolina
Lee County Courthouse in Sanford, North Carolina
Lee County Courthouse in Sanford, North Carolina
Lee County Courthouse in Sanford, North Carolina
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