Historic Whitfield Courthouse Gets New Life After Renovation

Calling it “a great value” for taxpayers, Whitfield County officials hosted an open house for the public Thursday night to tour the totally renovated 61-year-old original portion of the courthouse. 

“Everything you see in the building is brand new,” project manager Kent Benson said during the tour. “The only thing that’s original is the concrete frame itself, which is built like a tank and is stronger now than it was when they poured it. It’s a brand new building and we’re very proud of it, and we think Whitfield County should be proud of it, too.” 

The renovation brings the 1961 portion of the courthouse up to modern standards, he said. When the courthouse was expanded in 2005, a matching brick wall was constructed around the outer perimeter of the old building, which received only minor cosmetic upgrades inside. Eventually, mold became a problem because of the outdated HVAC systems that remained. Over the years, the roof on the original portion of the building began to leak, adding to the problems with mold, especially in the basement. 

The county began the renovation by replacing the roof in 2019 at a cost of $1.25 million, and voters approved a SPLOST in 2020 that paid for the ensuing interior renovation for an additional $6 million. 

Commission Chairman Jevin Jensen praised Mr. Benson for leading the project while also serving in his normal role as county engineer. 

“It was his guidance and a lot of his staff who said we wanted a fixed-bid quote when we originally priced this – which believe me the contractor came back many times and said, ‘What can we do? This is costing way more than we expected.’ But I said, ‘I feel for you, but I’ve got to watch out for the taxpayers’ money.’ We held firm, and that was Kent’s vision to have the work done with fixed pricing.  We would be major over budget if we hadn’t done that route, so it’s a great lesson learned. You never know what’s going to happen with inflation and materials cost.” 

In fact, Mr. Benson said they rushed to get the bids approved in 2020 because of a looming hike in the price of steel expected the next year. “The price of steel did go up 28 percent on Jan. 1, 2021,” he said, “so a project we built for $5 million would probably have cost us closer to $8 million if we had waited maybe six months to let the project. We didn’t know it was going to go up that much, but we did strive to get it done in a timely manner. And it did pay dividends for us.” 

Mr. Benson praised the work done by Duluth contractor Multiplex Construction as well as architect Carter Watkins. 

Starting in February 2021, Multiplex stripped the inside of the 45,000-square-foot, three-story building down to the concrete floors and outer walls, then totally rebuilt it to modern standards with all new plumbing and wiring, along with much more efficient LED lighting and heating and cooling system. 

During the tour, Mr. Benson led visitors through all three floors, including the ground level that houses the Public Defender’s Office and a new sallyport that allows inmates to be securely moved from a sheriff’s vehicle inside the building via a new elevator to the historic courtroom on the top floor. 

The middle floor includes a portion of the District Attorney’s Office, a meeting room for the county commission and other government organizations, a storage room for election voting machines, and space for future expansion of judicial functions. 

On the top floor, the juror assembly room was rebuilt in its former location, but at the request of the judges, the main courtroom is the only part of the building that wasn’t renovated, other than the installation of new HVAC, sprinkler, and sound and evidence presentation systems. 

 “This is a 60-year-old courthouse,” Commissioner Jensen said, “and now we’ve extended its life by at least 20 to 30 years.  In Europe, they have 200-, 300-year-old buildings still being used. They don’t just tear something down and rebuild it; I think that’s what we’ve accomplished here. A new courthouse -  I have no idea what that would cost - but for sure, it’d be $50 million in today’s money. So think about that $6 million to basically add 20 to 30 years life. I think that’s one of the best values for taxpayers’ money that we could spend.” 

Also during the open house, Clerk of Superior Court Babs Bailey talked about the digitizing of deed books underway by a company named Kofile that, when completed soon, will allow records to be accessed by the public 24/7, 365 days a week via the internet – allowing business to be conducted remotely, by multiple users at the same time, even when the office is closed down as it was during the pandemic, and preventing any further damage by manual handling of the old records that date as far back as 1852. 

Local art collector Robert Webb was also on hand to talk about the collection of 50 to 60 pieces of artwork that he is loaning for display throughout the courthouse. 

While the renovations will carry the courthouse into the future, Mr. Webb recalled a time in the past when public spaces like libraries, city halls, and courthouses featured artwork on the walls.  

“When people went into these spaces, they engaged with the culture of their country,” he said. “I am so proud of what the commissioners have done with this project, because it’s not just extending the life of the building, it’s given it a new life. It’s a beautiful space, it’s much more functional, it’s an incredible spend that’s a huge value for what you spent. I’m glad to help in a small way.” 

Mr. Webb’s collection, he says, spans almost 100 years, with roughly half the work by people of color, roughly half by women, “so the artwork that will be in this building represents America. That’s important I think because as our culture becomes more diverse, we have to recognize all of these voices play an important role. And to me, that’s real huge in a courthouse because this is the people’s house.” 

Mr. Webb admitted everyone may not like every piece in the collection, “and that’s okay. We don’t all like the same food, we don’t all like the same TV shows, and I don’t think anyone wants to have that kind of a homogenous society. We all need to have different tastes and different preferences, and that allows us to have dialogue that advances good ideas.” 

The work of the artists represented appears in about 500 museums, he said, appearing in the White House, in U.S. embassies around the world, the Smithsonian, “so this is work of a caliber that I feel good about sharing with this community because a first-class community doesn’t deserve second-class work.”