The "The Old Courthouse" Story

Lancaster's Courthouse on Center Square

It was an ordinary day.  Busy day in downtown so I had to find parking a couple of blocks away from Strawberry & Company which is located on West King and also opens in the rear next to Lancaster's Central Market.  I'm on my way to drop off a few of my photos with Wayne, the owner of Strawberry & Company.  As I go through the square in Lancaster I always marvel at the monument that stands in the center of the square, but that wasn't always standing at that location.  In 1739 a large brick courthouse, one of the first in America, had just been completed.  It was a two-story with a courtroom on the first floor and council chambers and storage rooms on the second floor.  The courthouse had leaded hand-made glass panes in the windows, the kind that when you look at them you can see shimmering wavelike lines going through it, a shingled-roof with a steeple and belfry which held a hand-cast bell atop it.  In the fall of the year Lancastrians would gather at the courthouse to elect local officials.  It was on June 15, 1774 that those citizens came together once again to protest Britain's passage of the Boston Port Bill of that year.  William Atlee had received a letter from Philadelphia about the trouble in Boston and had gathered the people to inform them of the event.  At the meeting in the courthouse they adopted resolutions censuring the British Parliament and expressing sympathy with the Bostonians.  They all agreed to unite with the people of Philadelphia and not buy any imported British goods until they repealed the bill.  Starting to sound familiar?  Nothing was resolved with this issue and a few weeks later, on July 9th, the citizens of Lancaster county were once again called to the Court House. George Ross led the meeting which expressed loyalty to the King of England, but denied their right to tax the colonies.  On January 14, 1775, in answer to a call from Philadelphia to elect delegates to a general convention to be held in Philadelphia, Lancastrians met once again at the courthouse to elect a committee for that purpose and which was chaired by Edward Shippen.  Finally on Tuesday, April 25th of that year, news of the first bloodshed of the Revolutionary War reached Lancaster.  Perhaps the most famous event that was held in Lancaster's Courthouse on Center Square occurred on September 27, 1777 when Lancaster was our Nation's Capital when members of the Continental Congress, fleeing the British advance to Philadelphia, met at the courthouse to discuss the nation's business.  On July 8, 1776, from the steps of the courthouse, news was read of the Declaration Of Independence. Local magistrates rushed to the courthouse where they surrendered their commissions, refused to recognize the King, and ordered the removal of the Royal coat of Arms from the Courtroom.  Bravo!!  That probably was the last big hurrah for Lancaster's Courthouse, since in June of 1784 it burned to the ground.  A tragic loss of one of Lancaster's most historical landmarks.  The spot stood vacant until in 1884 the Soldier's and Sailor's Monument was erected.  Pretty neat thinking I am walking in the same footprints as some of our countries most famous patriots.  And, today I feel like one of them!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.