Howard County Courthouse, County courthouse in Ellicott City, US.
The Howard County Courthouse is a granite building on a steep hill in Ellicott City, designed by Charles Timanus and completed in 1843 at a cost of $24,000. It served as the county's Circuit Court until 2021 and now stands vacant, with additions from 1938, 1962, and a six-level expansion in the 1980s that incorporated the historic Hayden house as its law library.
The granite courthouse, designed by Charles Timanus, was built between 1840 and 1843 for $24,000 on a steep hill once called Capitoline Hill, land bought from Deborah Disney. Additions followed in 1938 and 1962, and a $11.3 million expansion in 1982–1986 brought it to six levels, moving the Circuit Court entrance to the rear. The Circuit Court sat here until July 2021, when it moved to a new building near Columbia; the county has since sought reuse concepts for the vacant building.
A Confederate monument to Howard County soldiers was erected at the courthouse on 23 September 1948 and rededicated in September 1999. The building also held a small food concession run by successive contract holders, among them bail bondsman Howard F. Ducan, Nixon's Farm and Kiss Catering.
The Circuit Court moved out in July 2021, so the building no longer handles court business; Howard County has held public meetings on reusing it but approved no definite plans. The Circuit Court entrance was moved to the rear of the property in the 1982–1986 expansion, which extended the structure to six levels. The law library occupies the incorporated historic Hayden house on two levels, with the Maryland Room above the general collection.
The courthouse stands on a steep hill once called Capitoline Hill, on land bought from Deborah Disney; locals nicknamed it "Mt. Misery", likely for the pain of hauling granite blocks up the slope. The 1840–1843 building, designed by Charles Timanus, cost $24,000. In 1972 historian Charles Stein said its heavy granite construction should last for centuries.
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