Madison County Courthouse - Jackson TN

City:: Jackson, TN
Site Type:: Civic Facilities, Courthouses (State & Local)
New Deal Agencies:: Public Works Funding, Public Works Administration (PWA)
Completed:: 1936
Designer:: Marr & Holman
Contractor:: Foster & Creighton Construction Company
Quality of Information:: Very Good
Marked:: Yes
Site Survival:: Extant

Description

The historic Madison County Courthouse at 100 E Main St. in Jackson, Tennessee was constructed as a federal Public Works Administration (PWA) project during the Great Depression.

“This project consisted of a building 160 by 65 feet in plan and 4 stories and a basement in height. The basement contains offices for the county agent, farm welfare, the Red Cross, the health department, and a receiving room for the jail. On the first floor are the offices for the county clerk, registrar, county superintendent, tax assessor, sheriff, and county judge. The second floor is occupied by 2 courtrooms each 35 by 50 feet and by offices for the clerk of the court, the chancellor, circuit court clerk, and jury rooms. On the third floor, in addition to the upper parts of the 2 court rooms, are offices for the election commissioner and the attorney general as well as additional jury rooms. The fourth floor houses the jail with cells for 80 men and 24 women, and the necessary hospital facilities, kitchen, pantry, and jailer’s rooms.

The construction is fireproof, with reinforced concrete frame and exterior walls of brick faced with stone. It was completed in March 1936 at a construction cost of $282,674 and a project cost of $307,798.”

PWA Docket No. Tenn. 1137R

Source notes

C.W. Short and R. Stanley-Brown. "Public Buildings: A Survey of Architecture of Projects Constructed by Federal and Other Governmental Bodies Between the Years 1933 and 1939 with the Assistance of the Public Works Administration." (1939).

Building plaque.