Designed in 1908 by Savannah City Hall architect Hyman Wallace Witcover, this iconic and unique Georgia courthouse was recently restored. It is among the best examples of the so-called Jeffersonian style in the state, and the only courthouse of this form. A newer, more modern courthouse was constructed across the street to accommodate Effingham County’s population boom. [Thanks to Tracy for allowing access to the courtroom].
A portrait of John Adam Treutlen (1733-1782) by George Mandus hangs behind the judge’s bench. Treutlen, the son of an indentured servant who went on to become the wealthiest plantation owner in present-day Effingham County, was early associated with the Ebenezer community as a student of John Martin Boltzius. He was the first governor of Georgia elected after the state adopted its 1777 constitution. He was brutally murdered by Tories, or perhaps a jilted lover, at the end of the Revolutionary War, near Orangeburg, South Carolina. His final resting place is unknown at this time. The portrait is on loan from the Georgia Capitol Museum.
Effingham County should be commended for their excellent restoration of this unique historic courthouse.
National Register of Historic Places
The interior of the courthouse was used as film location for the trial scene for the 2000 film The Gift.
Regarding the Rountree Grocery in Egypt, Effingham County, my grandmother, Harriett Gertrude Everett Cadle, grew up in the community and was a close friend to Frank and Anita Rountree. They all attended Elam-Egypt Baptist Church, which Harriett’s great grandfather, George Foy, helped to found. I had a photograph, made in the early 1900s, of Harriett and Frank and Anita Rountree together. It is now in the Cadle Papers in the Rare Books and Manuscripts Department at the University of Georgia Libraries.