Courthouse Square

A courthouse is the flagship of every county. It is where justice is served, votes are cast, and, in our case, is the setting for much of our storied past.

Rowan County, formed in 1856, was the 104th county to be established in Kentucky, and was formed from parts of Morgan and Fleming counties. Property for our courthouse square was donated by Isabelle Abbey Oxley, one Morehead’s first settlers.

The first courthouse, a log structure, was destroyed in 1864 by Confederate General John Hunt Morgan when he burned it on his famous raid to the North.

The next structure, a two-story frame, was active until 1899. Part of the building burned in 1880, but was not totally destroyed. It was on this structure’s lawn in 1884 that the Rowan County War began, when Floyd Tolliver and John Martin started a gunfight that killed an innocent bystander, injured another and launched a three-year feud involving nearly everyone in the county.

The third and current brick structure, now on the National Historic Register, was built in 1899. In 2003, Rowan County Fiscal Court received a one million dollar matching grant from The Paul and Lucille Little Foundation. The building was restored to its current state, and since 2005, has served as the Rowan County Arts Center.

The arts center provides a public venue for Morehead Theater Guild productions, artist displays, art shows and festivals. It also serves as a meeting location for local groups and individuals.

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Starvation and poverty ravaged Rowan County during the Great Depression, just as it did the rest of the country.

The Works Progress Administration, born from the Depression during President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration, provided means for families and businesses to make a living during these difficult times. Local materials and labor were utilized to construct essential buildings and roads, improving infrastructure while creating jobs and boosting local economies.

The Rowan County Jail and the Rowan County Superintendent’s Office were built during the WPA era, between 1934 and 1938. The jail replaced a wooden structure that was inadequate for housing inmates, who often boasted about how easy it was to escape. The wooden jail’s deplorable conditions are recorded in Rowan County Fiscal Court minutes.

The Superintendent’s Office was the first central location for conducting school business. Until this building was constructed, school board meetings were held in outlying one-room schoolhouses, which tallied more than 50 in 1930. When the superintendent’s office was built, three new school buildings were also constructed, beginning the consolidation of one-room schools.

When the old courthouse was added to the National Historical Register in 1983, these two buildings were not old enough to be included in the nomination. The requirement is for buildings to be 50 years old — the jail and superintendent’s office were only 45 at the time. The buildings were successfully added to the Register in 2016 with the approval of a boundary increase to the old courthouse, which allowed the entire courthouse square to be protected by the designation.