My quest to be a Sixty-twoer
July 15, 2020 by Jason Haremza
Wayne County Courthouse in Lyons, NY
You may have heard of the Adirondack Forty-Sixers- an organization of hikers who have climbed all forty-six High Peaks. While I enjoy a walk in the woods and good view, I’m much more interested in local history and small towns and cling to a romantic belief in the noble aspirations of American democracy. This belief was expressed literally, in brick and stone, in the beautiful architecture of 19th and early 20th century government buildings.
Thus my quest to become a Sixty-Twoer. That is, to visit all 62 county courthouses in New York State. Why county courthouses you ask? I’m not entirely sure. It might be my family’s long history in county government service. It might be how county courthouses feature in books from ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ to the various works of John Grisham. It might just be my deep love of small town Upstate New York and collecting county courthouses gives my back road rambles a focus.
My criteria generally favors the historic ‘county courthouse’ of a given county, rather than bland modern replacements like the ‘county government complex’. After several years of travels around the state, I’m up to nearly 50 of the 62. Each one tells a story that often is a small piece of a much larger regional or state narrative.
One of my favorites from our region is the “fraternal” twins of Wayne and Orleans Counties. Both counties were formed in response to growing populations along the Erie Canal corridor who wanted “canal-focused” counties rather than being part of the larger Ontario and Genesee Counties.
Orleans County Courthouse in Albion, NY
By the late 1850s Orleans County was beginning to outgrow its original 1820s courthouse in Albion. A committee of the county’s Board of Supervisors traveled to Lyons and was impressed with the new Wayne County courthouse there. They decided it should be the model for their new one. For the design, they chose William V. N. Barlow, a young local architect for whom the courthouse would be his signature building. Completed in 1858, it is an ornate Greek Revival structure with a tall dome 36 feet wide like its model. The front columns are 50 feet tall, and the dome top twice that height. The cupola was once open to visitors, allowing for views to Lake Ontario in clear weather. The remaining county seats are getting harder and harder to reach.
The Suffolk County Courthouse, in Riverhead, at the eastern end of Long Island, is well over 400 miles from my home in Rochester (farther than Detroit or Baltimore). But my New York State rambles continue and I’m confident I will reach all 62.
