Brownsville was the county seat then. The schoolhouse on the Spalding donation land claim in South Brownsville was the first courthouse. Organization of county government occurred December 11, 1849. Albany was designated as the county seat of Linn County by legislature in January, 1851; and, in 1852, a courthouse was erected.

Linn county’s second courthouse, erected in 1852, was identical in plan with the famed Octagon House. The Octagon courthouse cost nearly $5,000. This wood-frame building, located on West Fourth Avenue, Albany, burned to the ground September 1, 1861. The fire did not destroy the county records in use at the time, as they were protected by a fireproof vault. However, many records and historical documents from the early days of Albany and Linn County were completely destroyed.

The Courthouse, pictured here, was completed between 1862 and 1865, at a cost of $35,000. The architecture was similar to Southern Colonial. It had a brick portico and four large Corinthian columns, two stories high. In 1899, the third story and the clock tower were added to the original building.

At the turn of the century, the town that didn’t possess a large town clock, with chimes, was not a town worthy of mention. Accordingly, the courthouse addition was designed around the clock tower. The clock itself had four ten-foot faces and was kept in motion by 1,000-pound weights. The bells, which rang Albany people to work in the morning and sounded curfew at night, could be heard in Sodaville when the wind was right. The clock was made by the Seth Thomas Company and kept nearly perfect time throughout its lifetime.

Not only was this courthouse interesting from a material standpoint but also for its outstanding usefulness to the whole community. In addition to housing the courtroom and county offices, it often served as a town hall, meetings of various kinds being held in the courtroom or in the attic above the second floor. In these same rooms, many eminent lecturers, evangelists, and other visiting speakers drew appreciative audiences of town and country folks. Some of the county’s able lawyers made their first speeches there. Directly to the north of the courthouse lay a vacant block which, in those early days, was called the “Courthouse Square.” Also, closely associated with the courthouse was the square, two-storied brick jail which stood on the southeast corner of the block. It was erected in 1871 at a cost of $9,550. When the second courthouse was enlarged and remodeled, the addition of a third story, two towers, a town clock, a statue of justice, and other adornments changed the style and appearance of the building completely, and the old courthouse became only a memory to those who had loved it.

STATE of OREGON

Portland West Union Baptist Church Joe Meek Donation Land Claim Old College Hall, Pacific University George Gay House George Fox College Belleque House Champoeg Farmland Amity Church of Christ Wheatland Ferry Salem Monmouth Normal School Stump House Fort Hoskins Bishop Simpson Chapel Albany Octagonal House Lynn County Court House St. Charles Hotel Montieth House White Spire Presbyterian Church Eugene Villard Hall Wilkins House Christian House Condon House Walton House Cartwright House (Lorane) Applegate House (Yoncalla)

Transcriber’s Notes