Old Monroe County Courthouse, National Historic Landmark courthouse in Monroeville, Alabama.
The Old Monroe County Courthouse is a former county courthouse in Monroeville, Alabama, serving from 1903 to 1963. The building has been restored to a 1930s appearance, and its second-floor courtroom, with original furnishings, was measured and photographed by film designers who recreated it on a Hollywood sound stage. It now operates as the Old Courthouse Museum.
The building opened in 1903 and served as the county's judicial center for more than six decades before its closure. Recognition as a National Historic Landmark came in 2021, acknowledging both its architectural significance and its place in American literary history.
The courthouse is a literary landmark tied to Harper Lee and Truman Capote, who spent their childhoods in Monroeville. Capote mentions it in A Christmas Memory, and it inspired the fictional courthouse in Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. Today the building serves as a theater for plays of the novel and as a museum devoted to Monroeville's authors, including Lee and Capote.
The building and its museum displays are open to visitors on weekdays and select Saturdays throughout the year. It's best to check current hours in advance since they may change with the season.
The courthouse interior was measured and photographed by Hollywood production designers, who rebuilt a close duplicate on a sound stage because the real building's audio quality was poor. The copy was so accurate that many Alabamians still believe To Kill a Mockingbird was filmed in Monroeville.
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