The Montgomery County Courthouse
The Courthouse
Originally the Montgomery County courts were held at Fort Jackson, just south of Elmore County until 1822. When a courthouse was built on court square, where it remained until 1854, the courthouse then moved to its current location on Washington avenue.1 The old county courthouse was designed by architect Charles C. Ordeman, who also designed the old Macon County Courthouse. The Montgomery County Courthouse was renovated and enlarged in 1894 and torn down to make way for the new courthouse in 1956.2 The new courthouse was designed by local architectural firm Pearson, Tittle, and Narrows, who also designed the Grove Court Apartments, which are also in Montgomery and are on the National Register of Historic Places. The new courthouse building was built by local construction company Bear Brothers Inc. It cost 2 million dollars to build which would be 17.4 million in 2018. The building was designed to provide easy access to all county facilities in one central location and to sustain county growth for 50 years.
The building housed a jail and a law library on the fourth floor which was only accessible by elevator. The third floor, which has an entrance on Adams Avenue, housed the District Attorney, the County Engineer, and the Domestic Relations Court. The second floor held the judge of probate and the probate offices, as well as the tax assessor’s and tax collector’s offices. The Board of Revenue was also on the second floor and was accessible from the entrance on Lawrence Street. The First floor held the offices for the sheriff’s department, the county agent, and the office for state probation and parole.
In 1985, a new courthouse was built, it opened in 1987 and houses the county jail, the circuit court, and the district attorney’s office. The probate court and the Montgomery County Archives remained in the original courthouse until 2009, when they moved to a new courthouse annex across the street. Today the courthouse is used primarily by the sheriff’s department whose offices have remained in the building. It is also used as administrative offices.3
​
