Historic Courthouse in Downtown Moultrie

 It was built all the way back in 1902...but it didn't always look like it does today. For the first 50 years of it's existence, the courthouse had an unpainted brick exterior!

It was In 1952 that the courthouse's brick was painted to the white color it is today. Four years later, in conjunction with Colquitt County's centennial (Colquitt County was founded in 1856) county commissioners authorized a complete remodeling and "modernization" of the courthouse in 1956-57 at a cost of $285,000 (That's $2,613,061 today!).

They saved some money on this project by using convict labor. The interior of the building was stripped to the first floor, and a new second and third floor were made - these new floors had 12-foot ceilings- much smaller than the 20 foot ceilings it had prior to the new floors being added! In this renovation, the original windows were bricked up, and new smaller windows installed for each floor; some of the distinctive architectural designs were also removed in this renovation in the effort to "modernize" the courthouse. 
In 1998, another major renovation went underway, ironically, some of the renovations were to restore the original architectural changes from the original 1902 design that were removed during the 1950s restoration! They didn't restore every aspect of the 1902 design...the second & third floors that lowered the 20 foot ceilings to 12 foot stayed- you can see the 3 floors of windows in the aerial. Compare that to the two floors of windows seen in the historic photo in the comments!

In 2003, a brand new courthouse building opened across the street. A historic photo from before it was painted white is also included in this post.
Jay Blanton | The Georgia Photography Fanatic