Location Information (for the Lafayette County Courthouse) Name: Lafayette County Courthouse Address: 1 Courthouse Square City/County: Oxford, Lafayette County Architectural Information Construction Date: 1871 Architectural Styles(s): Italianate No. of Stories: 3 Registration Information NR Listing Date: 23 Sep 1977 NR District Name: Oxford Courthouse Square (1980)     NR Status: Contributing     Element No.: 1 View National Register Nomination Form Mississippi Landmark Information Designated: 03-07-1984 Recorded: 03-22-1984 Book/Vol. No.: V. 365, p. 414 Easement Information Date Signed: 08-04-2008 Expires: 08-04-2033 Easement Type: Preservation/Maintenance Local Designation Information Local District Name: Courthouse Square Historic District click here for additional information on this district. Context/Comments A locally significant example of the architectural eclecticism which appeard in post-Civil War Mississippi. One of the oldest courthouses in the state and continuously in use since 1871, the structure is also significant as the focal point of local government in Lafayette County. Included in "Buildings of Mississippi" (2020) (p. 151).	Loading
Brief Description D. 1871, 3-stories, 9 bays (W,W,W, W, D,W,W,W,W), Italianate style masonry courthouse. Stand-up seam sheet metal, complex gable roof with box cornice and a domed clock tower with bracketed gables and semicircular louvered vents projects from the center of the roof. The original five-bay rectangle was extended in 1952 by additions at each end of one larger bay which repeated the original end wall elevation. Windows are 4/4 d.h. wood sashes. Segmental arched windows at the ground level of the original block change to semicircular arched at the upper level, and both are replaced on the additions by smaller sash, flat head fenestration. Projecting from the center bay of the south and north elevations are pediment porticoes with Corinthian columns raised on arcades scored in imitation of ashlar masonry. The two original bays on each side of the porticoes are divided by pilasters rising the full height of the structure from the water table to support a bracketed wooden cornice. Center entry is paired, wood with multi-lights and curved multi-light transom.
Historic Information The Lafayette County Courthouse is a locally significant example of the architectural eclecticism which appeared in post-Civil-War Mississippi. One of the oldest courthouses in the state and continuously in use since 1871, the structure is also significant as the focal point of local government in Lafayette County.