News - Local/State

Tuesday, Aug. 05, 2008

Arson suspected in Lancaster courthouse fire

Roof, second floor of 180-year-old site heavily damaged

LANCASTER -- An arsonist accomplished Monday what William T. Sherman couldn't in his notorious "march to the sea" -- burning down the 180-year-old Lancaster County Courthouse.

Eight fire departments were called to battle the early-morning blaze at Main and Dunlap streets, near the center of Lancaster. No one was reported injured.

The fire had been burning for some time before being reported by a passerby around 5:30 a.m., Fire Chief Chris Nunnery said.

Police Chief Hugh White said there's "no doubt" that the fire -- which destroyed the roof and much of the courthouse's interior -- was the work of an arsonist.

Someone apparently broke into the courthouse through a front window, started the fire and fled through a back door before 5:30 a.m., White said. Fire investigators believe the blaze was started on the second floor, but they haven't pinpointed exactly where.

"It's a historic place," White said. "I just hate it. I really do."

The roof of the courthouse had collapsed, said Rudy Carter, chairman of the Lancaster County Council, and there was heavy fire damage to the second floor. The ground floor, where clerk of court offices were located, did not have fire damage but did suffer heavy water damage. Carter wouldn't even guess the dollar amount of the loss.

"We don't even know where to begin right now," he said. "We're going to have to bring in structural engineers to make sure the walls are still sound. We'll just have to go from there."

Noted architect

The age of the courthouse -- used continuously for court proceedings since it was completed in 1828 -- is not the only reason it's significant, local historians say.

The courthouse and the county jail were designed by noted South Carolina architect Robert Mills, best known for designing the Washington Monument. Not many Mills-designed buildings are still standing, said Jo Williamson, a member of the Lancaster city and county historical commissions.

"The designer of it makes it absolutely imperative that we save it," she said, pointing to one of the courthouse's distinctive features -- a palladian window with a central arched section flanked by two narrow rectangular sections. She was hopeful that was not destroyed.

An earlier courthouse that stood on the same spot also was reported to have been the site of the last witchcraft trial held in the United States in 1813.

Some 50 years later, Lancaster County historian Lindsay Pettus said, Gen. Sherman's Union army -- which literally burned through the Confederacy near the end of the Civil War, torching Columbia, Atlanta and other cities along the way -- set a fire inside the courthouse. Damage was not severe, according to a history of the county on the local Chamber of Commerce Web site, but important papers were destroyed.

With its distinctive fine reeded woodwork and vaulted ceilings, the courthouse -- the third built on the site -- was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1973.

"The community took great pride in this building," Pettus said. "It's sad."

A team would have to be brought in to assess the damage to the building, Carter said.

Second attempt

Monday's blaze wasn't the first modern-day attempt to burn the courthouse. Two years ago someone tried to set fire to the courthouse by throwing a device similar Molotov cocktail through a bathroom window, causing about $5,000 in damage.

County officials had been looking at the possibility of building a new courthouse for security and other reasons. Pettus said the last major renovations occurred in the late 1980s.

The building was only used for court -- other county offices are located in the nearby county administration building. A session of court had been scheduled for Monday.

Court proceedings will be held today at the municipal justice building, 405 E. Arch St. The Lancaster County Council will meet today to discuss an emergency plan for the courthouse.

The State Law Enforcement Division sent an arson team and arson investigation dog, said Jennifer Timmons, an agency spokeswoman. Agents from the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also were summoned, county administrator Steve Willis said.