GeorgiaThe landmark 1889 Chatham County Courthouse on Bull Street off Wright Square in Savannah was the setting for one of America's most famous murder cases, the trials of antiques dealer Jim Williams for the 1981 shooting of his young assistant Danny Hansford at the nearby Mercer House. Williams was tried four separate times between 1982 and 1989, an ordeal chronicled in John Berendt's best-selling 1994 book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and Clint Eastwood's 1997 film; District Attorney Spencer Lawton led the long prosecution, and Williams was ultimately acquitted. Designed by Boston architect William G. Preston in the Romanesque Revival style and faced in pale yellow brick with terra-cotta ornament, the courthouse is a contributing building in the Savannah Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places. The Superior and State courts have since moved to a newer courthouse a few blocks away on Montgomery Street, so the historic building now houses county administrative offices rather than the working courtrooms where those trials unfolded.
Chatham County Courthouse
The stone-and-brick heart of every Georgia county.
Chatham County Courthouse is a courthouse in Savannah, Chatham County. It is one of 480 historic sites cataloged in Chatham County on Georgia Roam.
The site sits at 32.0793, -81.0972 near Savannah. The nearest cataloged historic site is Atlantic Greyhound Bus Terminal (historic place), about under a tenth of a mile away. Others within a short drive include Oglethorpe Lane Building, Pete Liakakis Government Building, and Slotin Building.
This record is drawn from the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Use the map below for its exact position and turn-by-turn directions.
The landmark 1889 Chatham County Courthouse on Bull Street off Wright Square in Savannah was the setting for one of America's most famous murder cases, the trials of antiques dealer Jim Williams for the 1981 shooting of his young assistant Danny Hansford at the nearby Mercer House. Williams was tried four separate times between 1982 and 1989, an ordeal chronicled in John Berendt's best-selling 1994 book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and Clint Eastwood's 1997 film; District Attorney Spencer Lawton led the long prosecution, and Williams was ultimately acquitted. Designed by Boston architect William G. Preston in the Romanesque Revival style and faced in pale yellow brick with terra-cotta ornament, the courthouse is a contributing building in the Savannah Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places. The Superior and State courts have since moved to a newer courthouse a few blocks away on Montgomery Street, so the historic building now houses county administrative offices rather than the working courtrooms where those trials unfolded.
Sources: en.wikipedia.orgdigitalcommons.law.uga.eduen.wikipedia.org
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