Somerset County Courthouse (New Jersey)

Last updated
Somerset Courthouse Green
SomervilleCourtHouse.JPG
Somerville Court House
Location map of Somerset County, New Jersey.svg
Red pog.svg
USA New Jersey location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
LocationRoughly E. Main Street from Grove Street to N. Bridge Street, Somerville, NJ 08876
Coordinates 40°34′5″N74°36′40″W / 40.56806°N 74.61111°W / 40.56806; -74.61111 Coordinates: 40°34′5″N74°36′40″W / 40.56806°N 74.61111°W / 40.56806; -74.61111
Area2.2 acres (0.89 ha)
Built1907
Architectural style Neo-classical style Palladian
NRHP reference No. 89001216 [1]
NJRHP No.2582 [2]
Significant dates
Added to NRHPSeptember 7, 1989
Designated NJRHPMay 26, 1989

The Somerset County Courthouse is located in Somerville, the county seat Somerset County, in New Jersey, United States.

Contents

Constructed in between 1907 and 1909 in the Neo-classical style Palladian style and is faced with Sylacauga marble. It had once been considered for demolition for not being large enough to accommodate the growing county. A much larger, modern masonry and glass structure behind it (left side of photo), now serves its judicial functions. The courthouse underwent a $US 6 million renovation between 1989 and 1996.

Historic district

Attached to the courthouse is the First Reformed Dutch Church and Cemetery, built in 1898, which has served as the county's Jury Assembly Room since it was renovated around 1985. The courthouse, church, and grounds comprise the Somerset Courthouse Green, which added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 7, 1989. [2]

History

The Court House in Somerville, NJ CourtHouse02.jpg
The Court House in Somerville, NJ

When Somerset County was chartered in 1688 most, if not all, judicial affairs were subject to the jurisdiction of the Middlesex County. This all changed in 1714 because the growing community was in need of its own court. The Colonial Assembly passed an act allowing for the building of a court house in Somerset County. County Freeholders chose Six Mile Run (in Franklin Township), as the site to build the new courthouse and jail. In 1737, the jail and courthouse caught fire and burned to the ground. Everything was destroyed. The Freeholders then decided, due to the fire and due to the inaccessibility of the courthouse, to move its location to present-day Millstone. This courthouse served the county until about 1779. This is when invading British forces burned down the courthouse and again most of the records were lost. A committee was appointed by the county in 1782 to build a new courthouse. The Committee met with members of the Dutch Reformed Church (the Consistory of the Church of Raritan) and voted to join and build a courthouse. This association between the court and the church lasted until 1788 when the Dutch Reformed Church relinquished its previous agreements for use of the courthouse, located in Somerville.

Hall–Mills murder case was tried in the court in 1926.

On 24 September 2010 at 10:23 a.m. a bomb threat was called in evacuating the court house and nearby buildings. [3]

See also

Related Research Articles

Somerset County, New Jersey County in New Jersey, United States

Somerset County is a county located in the north-central part of the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States Census, the county's population was enumerated at 345,361, an increase of 21,917 (6.8%) from the 323,444 counted at the 2010 U.S Census, making it the 13th most populous of the state's 21 counties. Somerset County constitutes part of the New York Metropolitan Area. Its county seat is Somerville. The most populous place in the county was Franklin Township, with 62,300 residents at the time of the 2010 Census, while Hillsborough Township, with 55.00 square miles (142.4 km2), covered the largest total area of any municipality.

Somerville, New Jersey Borough in Somerset County, New Jersey, United States

Somerville is a borough in and the county seat of Somerset County, New Jersey, United States. The borough is located in the heart of the Raritan Valley region within the New York Metropolitan Area. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 12,098, reflecting a decline of 325 (-2.6%) from the 12,423 counted in the 2000 Census, which had in turn increased by 791 (+6.8%) from the 11,632 counted in the 1990 Census.

Jacob Rutsen Hardenbergh American politician

Jacob Rutsen Hardenbergh was an American Dutch Reformed clergyman, colonial and state legislator, and educator. Hardenbergh was a founder of Queen's College—now Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey—in 1766, and was later appointed as the college's first president.

In New Jersey, a Board of County Commissioners is the elected county-wide government board in each of the state's 21 counties. In the five counties that have an elected county executive, the board of county commissioners serves as the county legislature. In the remaining counties, the board of county commissioners exercises both executive and legislative functions, often with an appointed county administrator or manager overseeing the day-to-day operations of county government.

Old Dutch Parsonage United States historic place

The Old Dutch Parsonage is a historical house built in 1751, moved about 1913 and now located at 65 Washington Place, Somerville, Somerset County, New Jersey, United States. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 25, 1971, and noted as "an excellent example of mid-18th-century Flemish Bond brick structure".

Wallace House (Somerville, New Jersey) United States historic place

The Wallace House is a Georgian style historic house, which served as the headquarters of General George Washington during the second Middlebrook encampment (1778–79), located at 38 Washington Place, Somerville, Somerset County, New Jersey, United States. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 2, 1970.

Bulloch County Courthouse United States historic place

The Bulloch County Courthouse is a historic courthouse that is located in downtown Statesboro, Georgia. It was built in 1894 to house the county government. On September 18, 1980, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Bergen County Court House municipal edifice in New Jersey

Bergen County, New Jersey had a series of court houses. The current one stands in Hackensack, New Jersey.

Hudson County Courthouse Beaux-Arts courthouse in Jersey City, USA

The Hudson County Courthouse or Justice William J. Brennan Jr. Courthouse is located in Jersey City, Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. The six-story structure was originally built between 1906 and 1910 at a cost of $3,328,016.56. It is considered to be an outstanding example of the Beaux-Arts architectural style in the United States.

Genesee County Courthouse United States historic place

The Genesee County Courthouse is located at the intersection of Main and Ellicott streets in Batavia, New York, United States. It is a three-story Greek Revival limestone structure built in the 1840s.

Genesee County Courthouse Historic District United States historic place

The Genesee County Courthouse Historic District is located at the junction of Main, West Main and Ellicott streets in downtown Batavia, New York, United States. It is a small area with the county courthouse, a war memorial and other government buildings dating from the 1840s to the 1920s. Some were originally built for private purposes.

Rutherford County Courthouse (Tennessee) United States historic place

The Rutherford County Courthouse in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, is a Classical Revival building from 1859. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. It is one of six remaining antebellum county courthouses in Tennessee

Reformed Dutch Church of Blawenburg United States historic place

Reformed Dutch Church of Blawenburg, now known as Blawenburg Reformed Church, is a historic church at 424 County Route 518 in the Blawenburg section of Montgomery Township in Somerset County, New Jersey. The Blawenburg Reformed Church Cemetery is located on County Route 601 near CR 518. The church was added to the National Register of Historic Places on July 22, 1985 for its significance in architecture and religion. It was added as a contributing property to the Blawenburg Historic District in 1990.

Sussex County Courthouse (New Jersey) United States historic place

Sussex County Courthouse is located at the corner of High and Spring Streets in Newton, the county seat of Sussex County, New Jersey. It is part 10th vicinage of the New Jersey Superior Court.

Scott County Courthouse (Iowa)

The Scott County Courthouse in Davenport, Iowa, United States was built from 1955 to 1956 and extensively renovated over a ten-year period between 1998 and 2009. It is the third building the county has used for court functions and county administration. It is part of a larger county complex that includes the county jail, administration building and juvenile detention facility. In 2020 the courthouse was included as a contributing property in the Davenport Downtown Commercial Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.

Lee County Courthouse (Fort Madison, Iowa) United States historic place

The Lee County Courthouse is located in Fort Madison, Iowa, United States. The courthouse serves the court functions and county administration for the northern part of Lee County, and it is the county's first courthouse. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976 as a part of the County Courthouses in Iowa Thematic Resource. In 2014, it was included as a contributing property in the Park-to-Park Residential Historic District. Southern Lee County is served from a courthouse in Keokuk in the former Federal Courthouse building.

Six Mile Run Reformed Church United States historic place

The Six Mile Run Reformed Church is in the Six Mile Run section of Franklin Township, Somerset County, New Jersey. It takes its name from Six Mile Run, a tributary of the Millstone River that flows through the area.

Washington County Courthouse (Arkansas) Courthouse in Arkansas

The Washington County Courthouse is the name of a current courthouse and that of a historic one in Fayetteville, Arkansas, the county seat of Washington County. The historic building, built in 1905, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. The historic courthouse is the fifth building to serve Washington County, with the prior buildings located on the Historic Square where the Old Post Office is today. The building is one of the prominent historic buildings that compose the Fayetteville skyline, in addition to Old Main.

Old Meigs County Courthouse United States historic place

The Old Meigs County Courthouse is a historic former government building in the small community of Chester, Ohio, United States. Erected in the early nineteenth century, the courthouse served multiple purposes for the surrounding community in its early years, but it operated as a courthouse for less than twenty years before being abandoned in favor of another courthouse in another community. Following a restoration in the 1950s, it was designated a historic site in the 1970s along with an adjacent school; the two buildings are operated together as a museum. It is Ohio's oldest extant building constructed as a courthouse.

Perry County Courthouse (Ohio) local government building in the United States

The Perry County Courthouse is a historic government building in the city of New Lexington, Ohio, United States. Built near the end of the nineteenth century after the end of a county seat war, it is the fifth courthouse to serve Perry County, and it has been named a historic site because of its imposing architecture.

References

  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. 1 2 "New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places - Somerset County" (PDF). New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection - Historic Preservation Office. August 22, 2016. p. 13.
  3. Rick Epstein (24 September 2010). "Bomb scare empties Somerset County Courthouse in Somerville". nj.com. New Jersey On-Line LLC. Retrieved 3 October 2010.