The contract was awarded to Garner Ellwood for £4,580, on the 19th June, 1852. The jail, jailor's house, etc., to be completed by the 15th September following, and the Court House on the 1st August, 1853.
The Building Committee consisted of the whole council, of which Messrs. Clark and Locker of Malahide, Ganson of Yarmouth, Skinner of Bayham, Munro of Southwold and Parish of St. Thomas, were the most active. Thomas Cheeseman was the architect's superintendent in charge of the work.
WARDEN LOCKER, 1852-1855
The jail was not completed until the spring of 1853, and on the 23rd of March Mr. Ellwood gave up the contract, £2,764 having been expended. The Warden was then authorized to proceed with the work which, with the exception of minor contracts, was completed by day labor, with Thomas Fraser, builder, of London, as superintendent. The Gaol as at first erected was not satisfactory, the plan being defective. This increased the cost and when the buildings were completed and furnished in 1854, the total expenditure was £11,405. Mr. Ellwood in tendering for the buildings was guided by the figures supplied by Architect Turner who was then erecting a court house at Brantford. In a subsequent report to the council Mr. Turner states that in the erection of the Brantford building he ruined himself, and that he could not have erected the Elgin buildings at a less price than they cost the county.
A Special Committee reported on completion of the work: "That after taking into consideration the advance in price of material and labor—that the buildings have been erected in as judicious and economical a manner as the circumstances would admit, and that the beautiful workmanship and design is not surpassed by any building in Canada west."
THE ELGIN COURTHOUSE, 1860.
The Royal Arms Rampant, which is very much admired, on the front of the Court House, is in size twelve feet by six feet, and cost £93. They were supplied by Messrs. Cochranes and Pollock of Toronto, from a sketch drawn by Mr. John M. Walthew who also painted the picture placed in the court room, the beauty of which the council acknowledged by special resolution in January 1855. Sculptured faces were placed in the east and west gables of the building. That in the west resembles Lord Elgin, after whom the county was named, and the other may be architect Turner but at present no one seems to know definitely who they were intended to represent.
In 1853 the Town Hall of the Village of St. Thomas was secured for court purposes on condition that any fittings, etc., required were to be supplied by the County, and left in the building when court house was completed. Plans of the new buildings and of the town hall were submitted to the statutory commissioners, and approved of as suitable for court purposes. On the 30th of September, 1852, a proclamation was published in the Official Gazette, dissolving the union of Elgin and Middlesex.