Public Buildings.

Including John Fink's Tavern at Somerset, our county has her fifth Court House. Justice was dis- pensed there at the first while the various offices were located in rented rooms. In 1819 a stone and brick building was erected on South Columbus street, in Somerset, as a jail. A court room and some of the offices were also included. The cost of this building was $2,335. This was our capitol till 1829, when a new Court House was built on the north side of the Public Square. This building still stands as it was then built, with the exception of a jail, joined to it in 1848, and some recent repairs. The original building of 1829 cost the tax payers of Perry County $6,600, while the jail, built to it was erected for the sum of $6,195.92. The 1829 building was not large enough to accommodate all of the offices. A part of them re- mained in the old jail building, till the new one was completed. Over the main door of the Court House can yet be seen that wonderful inscription --- "Let Justice be done. If the Heavens should fall." 133

As to its real meaning this inscription has long been an enigma. It is a case wherein considerable reading between the lines can be indulged. If the period after the word done be changed to a comma, as was evidently the intention, we are left in a considerable quandary as to the time when justice will prevail. If the period be allowed to remain, then we have two sentences. The first one sounds very well and is a noble sentiment. Then after the second sentence we are obliged to place an exclamation point, all of which then seems to con- vey the idea, that the justice therein administered, was such a rarity, that when it was rendered, the heavens would certainly collapse. The first Court House at New Lexington was not paid for by the tax payers. The friends of removal to New Lexington, by private subscription, raised the necessary amount. One of the stipulations in the Act for the change of the county seat, was that suitable buildings should be provided. After the completion of the building it stood vacant for several years before the offices were placed in it. The present Court House was built in 1887, at a cost of $143,000. It is one of the finest buildings for its purpose in the state. The original County Infirmary was built in 1839 and 1840. It was enlarged some time in the seventies. Strange to say that the part built in 1839 is still in sufficiently good condition, to render it suitable to be built to by the new building that is now being con- structed, while the one more recently built has been condemned and is being torn down. The one that is now building will be a handsome structure, with all of the modern improvements. It is to cost $35,000. 134

The Orphans' Home is a large commodious build- ing that has been prepared to shelter quite a number of children. It is situated at the eastern edge of New Lexington and has been established about a dozen years. 135

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