Historic Berrien County Courthouse

The Historic Berrien County Courthouse in Nashville, Georgia, was built at a cost of $17,000 and was completed in 1898. It replaced the two-story wood structure that had served as the county’s courthouse from 1858 until around 1897. The wooden structure was purchased by Dr. William Bryan Goodman, who moved it to the northeast side of the square and converted it into the Hansell Hotel. Built from iron support beams, steel ceiling, metal doors and window frames, and cement floors both upstairs and downstairs, the building was virtually fireproof. According to local historians, the bricks used on the outside of the courthouse were shipped by rail from Macon to Alapaha, and many or all of the inside bricks were made locally by Reddick McKinnon, from Berrien County clay. An annex was added to the west side of the courthouse in 1938, through the Works Projects Administration (WPA), and in 1981, a complete renovation of the inside was made, preserving the original interiors and colors as much as possible.