I was in the mood for looking at a little Greek Revival architecture so we’re heading into the recent archives and looking at the Jefferson County Courthouse in Louisville, Kentucky. Now, obviously they’ve built a bigger one nearby but this building still has some government functions inside. Like the Old Courthouse in St. Louis and the Old Montgomery County Courthouse in Dayton, Ohio, the Jefferson County Courthouse expresses the Greek Revival in the Doric Order, which is most common.

I strongly suspect this building was designed to be added onto, but the County chose to go in a new direction when the Greek Revival went out of style. It was designed by Gideon Shryrock and construction started in 1837 with completion of this first and de facto final phase in 1860.

There is a nice sculpture out front of the county’s namesake, Thomas Jefferson, by  Moses Jacob Ezekiel.

The City of Louisville temporarily had its offices in the courthouse, but then in 1873 constructed this fantastic eclectic mix of architectural styles. Is it Italianate? Second Empire? Renaissance Revival? I don’t know! I don’t think the architect, John Andrewartha, knew, either.

I spotted the pile of Indiana limestone through the trees near the courthouse, and walked over to take a look. Perhaps it is best described as a transitional structure, showing the emerging styles in architecture after the Civil War.

While it certainly uses Classical orders such as the Corinthian, it is a decidedly unclassical building, with a lack of symmetry and order. The pediment is more Roman than Greek in proportion with Corinthian pilasters below, and interesting paired couplets on the ends flanking two single pilasters in the middle. Weird.

It is asymmetrical and picturesque in its composition, with an off-center tower complete with a Mansard roof, showing Second Empire influence.

The base of the tower has an Italianate feel to it.

The clock was working.

The windows are interesting, with a Renaissance feel to them.

The stars of the show are the heads of the different domesticated animals important to the economy of Kentucky in the tympanums above the windows.

I spotted a donkey or mule, a bull or ox, a horse and a pig