I realized I had gotten away from posting photos from my trip to the northeastern Midwest, and continuing on my theme of the Greek Revival that I had been examining in St. Charles County, I thought I would look at two excellent examples of that style, the first in Louisville, Kentucky.

Originally built as the Jefferson County Courthouse, the building is now known as Louisville Metro Hall, as there are county offices as well as the mayor’s office inside. Designed by Gideon Shyrock, construction began in 1837; there was originally going to be a cupola and additional wings, and I can’t help but imagine how much the final composition would have mirrored our own Greek Revival Old Courthouse in St. Louis. Construction ended in 1860, around the time the style fell out of favor.

Not surprisingly, there is a massive pile of bronze commemorating the county’s namesake, Thomas Jefferson out front. Jefferson had argued that the new United States needed a national style that rejected older authoritarian-associated modes of architecture, and thus the Greek Revival and Neo-Classical styles more befitted a democratic and republican form of government.