Have you ever looked up at the Twin Falls County Courthouse and wondered why the word “county” is written with a “V”? Here`s why. A good starting point is the development of the Latin alphabet, which originally had a v but no u. Later, the u was added to distinguish the vowel u from the consonant u. The v represented both sounds, such as “The Alphabet: A Key to the History of Mankind” by David Diringer. (Thanks to Patty Wieczorek, Reference Librarian.) Similarly, the i was used for j, the last letter added to the alphabet. By the way, the u was the penultimate letter. This explains why, a few centuries ago, there was a v instead of a u on manuscripts and buildings, but the Greenville Family Court Building, which no longer exists, was built around 1916. So now we have to look at the architecture of the time. Local historian and architect Martin Meek explained that from 1890 to 1920, the Roman Revival style of architecture gained popularity as interest in Victorian architecture waned. Thus, the buildings erected during this period took elements of classical thought, including columns, arches and antique motifs.
The buildings also incorporated lettering, as the u did not exist during the original Roman Renaissance period of the late 1600s and early 1700s. The builders were anachronistic only by making the Covrt Hovse compatible with the rest of the architecture. Another local example is the Union County Courthouse, built between 1912 and 1914, Meek said. The word “Justice” is engraved on the façade of the Arkansas Supreme Court building with a V as the second letter instead of a U. This is because part of the basis of our legal system comes from Roman law, and the Latin alphabet did not have a U at one time. Daniel Patrick Moynihan The United States Courthouse in New York is an example of a postmodern skyscraper After the Oklahoma City bombing, the federal government fortified all major federal buildings, including many municipal courthouses. Some courthouses located in areas with high levels of violent crime have redundant layers of security. For example, if the California Supreme Court hears oral proceedings in San Francisco or Los Angeles, visitors must pass through one security checkpoint to enter the building and another to enter the courtroom. Courthouses would use Vs instead of Us to evoke a classical and ancient Roman aesthetic.
After all, the courthouse`s stereotypical façade is built in the neoclassical style: a Google image search for “courthouse” returns mostly neoclassical buildings. In most counties in the United States, local trial courts operate in a central courthouse. The courthouse may also house other county government offices, or the courthouse may consist of a specific part of a larger county government building or complex. The courthouse is usually located in the county seat, although large metropolitan counties may have satellite or auxiliary offices for their courts. This is an entrance to the historic San Juan County Courthouse in Silverton, Colorado. Many judges also officiate at civil marriages in their judicial chambers. In some places, the courthouse also contains the main administrative office of the county government, or when a new courthouse is built, the old one is often used for other local government offices. In all cases, a typical courthouse has one or more courtrooms and a clerk`s office with a filing window where litigants can file documents for submission to the court. In Canada, each community builds its own courthouse, or several in the case of large cities. In small municipalities, the court is located in the same building as the town hall and other municipal offices.
In the past, many courthouses also housed the local jail. A courthouse or courthouse is a building that houses a local court and often also the county regional government, although some major cities do not. The term is common in North America. In most other English-speaking countries, buildings that house courts are simply called “courts” or “courthouses.” In most continental European colonies and former non-English-speaking European colonies, the equivalent term is courthouse (French: courthouse, Italian: palazzo di giustizia, Portuguese: palácio da justiça). For example, the Los Angeles Superior Court added such checkpoints to all entrances to its main courthouse in downtown Los Angeles after a woman was shot and killed by her ex-husband during a public hearing in September 1995. [8] The California Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that Los Angeles County (which was responsible for courthouse maintenance at the time) was not liable to her three children under the California Government Tort Claims Act. [9] Due to concerns about possible violence, many courthouses in U.S. cities often have security checkpoints where everyone who arrives is searched for weapons. usually using an X-ray machine for all bags and a walk-in metal detector, similar to airports. U was not widely used in the English language until the 18th century.
Old Latin used V for uppercase letters and U for lowercase letters. Thus, all Roman buildings were labeled V instead of U. Attentive people sometimes see public buildings where U is replaced by V to spell the name. It is a desire to distinguish the building by writing in a traditional way. In the past, it was common practice to apply this practice to county courthouses. Why is Greenville Court House COVRT HOVSE written and not COURT HOUSE? — J.W.H., Landrum Every U.S. district court also has a federally owned building that houses courtrooms, chambers, and office workers. Many federal judicial districts are divided into divisions, which may also have their own courthouses. Sometimes, however, divisional court facilities are located in buildings that also house other U.S.
government agencies or offices. for example the Mitchell H. The Cohen United States Courthouse in Camden, New Jersey houses a branch of the United States Postal Service and court facilities for the District of New Jersey. [4] [5] Some branches of federal courts are even housed in rented offices in buildings that house commercial tenants (for example, the United States Bankruptcy Court for Delaware County is located in an office building in Wilmington, across the street from the main courthouse of the district court). [6] The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California has a courthouse in Yosemite to try felonies and misdemeanors for Yosemite National Park. [7] At present, most U.S. appellate courts have a place in the main courts of the federal district court, covering the city in which they are located. The courthouse is part of the iconography of American life and corresponds to the city hall as a symbol of the municipium in Europe`s free cities.
Courthouses are often shown in American cinemas (e.g. “Peyton Place,” “Back to the Future” and “My Cousin Vinny”). They range from rural buildings in small towns with few rooms to large urban courthouses occupying large plots of land. The style of American architecture varies, with common styles such as federal, Greek Revival, Neoclassicism, and Modern. A well-known courthouse in Canada is the Old Romanesque (Romanesque Revival) City Hall in Toronto, Ontario. Designed by E.J. Lennox, the Old Town Hall was completed in 1899 and has functioned as a municipal building ever since. It was originally built to facilitate Toronto City Council, legal and municipal offices, and city courts, but after the construction of the fourth City Hall (adjacent to the third on Queen Street), the purpose of the building was limited to being exclusively a courthouse for the Ontario Court of Justice. [10] This building can be called a Romanesque revival because it shares several features with Romanesque architecture (although it was built seven centuries later on a completely different continent). These features include materiality in relation to the large stone structure, repeated rhythmic use of windows with arches of different sizes and barrel vaults that draw attention to them, ornate spandrels (section of wall connecting the arches) and the inclusion of gable walls (pointed parts). The old City Hall has been designated a national historic site since 1989.
[11] She and V share a common history and were once interchangeable.