The Ashe Street Courthouse, a 110-year-old building in Washington County that housed county courts for several decades, is the latest judicial edifice in Tennessee to be named to the National Register of Historic Places. It was officially listed on the register on November 17.
The Courthouse was constructed in 1910 in Johnson City in the Beaux Art style and was originally known as the Johnson City Postal Savings Bank and Post Office. According to the building’s National Register of Historic Places registration form, it was purchased by Washington County in 1940 and renovated and expanded for use as a courthouse. Two further additions were made to the building in 1964 and 1965 to add new offices and a new courtroom.
The building functioned as a courthouse until 1985, when the county outgrew the space and a new courthouse was built. From 1987 to late 2017, the building was used as a 911 call center. Since then it has been unoccupied, raising fears among advocates that it could fall into disrepair.
In recent years the Ashe Street Courthouse has attracted the attention of a number of preservationists and local leaders, who have endeavored to save the building.
Earlier this year, Governor Bill Lee put a $5 million grant in the state budget for renovations to the building, a move that was lauded by Johnson City Mayor Jenny Brock.
“This will help us save a historic building from deterioration, and helps us to leapfrog the redevelopment of the West Walnut Street corridor,” she said in a February 3 article in the Johnson City Press.
Being named to the National Register of Historic Places does not necessarily mean that the building’s future is assured. For one thing, a listing on the National Register does not restrict what a non-federal property owner can do to a building, except in limited circumstances. In the case of the Ashe Street Courthouse, its ownership will revert back to the federal government if no public use is found for the building. According to the Johnson City Press, that means that the building could eventually be put up for auction.
A listing on the National Register does set the building up to attract further funding, though.
“It will make the building stand out,” Heritage Alliance of Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia Executive Director Anne G’ Fellers-Mason said in another Johnson City Press article. “It puts us in the position to be eligible for money that would not be available otherwise.”
Of course, all this talk of funding came pre-Covid, which has some raising concerns that budget tightening could imperil restoration efforts, but advocates are still optimistic about what is in store for the Ashe Street Courthouse.
“We know there is a future for this building,” G’Fellers-Mason said in September in the Johnson City News & Neighbor. “It is coming, and this is just a step in the process of securing that future.”
One person who has been deeply invested in the future of the building is retired longtime Washington County General Sessions Judge John Kiener. Judge Kiener worked in the Ashe Street Courthouse from 1972 until 1987, first as an attorney and then as a judge.
He shared some anecdotes from his time in the Ashe Street Courthouse earlier this year in the Jonesborough Herald & Tribune and, more recently, via a YouTube video posted by the Chester Inn Museum & State Historic Site.
Judge Kiener also suggested a couple of possible uses for the building, including transforming it into a community arts center.
The Heritage Alliance is currently accepting proposals as part of a feasibility study intended to determine the best potential uses for the building. You can find out more about that study here.
The former Ashe Street Courthouse joins a number of other Tennessee courthouses or historic districts containing courthouses on the National Register of Historic Places. The most recent addition before the Ashe Street Courthouse was the Wayne County Courthouse, which was added to the register on July 29. Built in 1975, the courthouse is notable for its distinctive Brutalist style of architecture.
The Tennessee Historical Society’s State Review Board meets three times a year to consider nominations for the National Register of Historic Places. The Board then makes recommendations to the National Park Service as to what properties it thinks should be listed on the National Register.
Here is a complete list of state courthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Tennessee, taken from a larger list of all National Register sites in the state:
Adams Avenue Historic District (includes the Shelby County Courthouse)
Bledsoe County Courthouse
Blountville Historic District (includes the Sullivan County Courthouse)
Bolivar Court Square Historic District (includes the Hardeman County Courthouse)
Cannon County Courthouse
Charlotte Courthouse Square Historic District (includes the Dickson County Courthouse)
Cheatham County Courthouse
Chester County Courthouse
Clarksville Architectural Historic District (includes the Montgomery County Courthouse)
Clay County Courthouse
Cleveland Commercial Historic District (includes the Bradley County Courthouse)
Cocke County Courthouse
Coffee County Courthouse
Columbia Commercial Historic District (includes the Maury County Courthouse)
Cumberland County Courthouses
Dandridge Historic District (includes the Jefferson County Courthouse)
Davidson County Courthouse
Dyersburg Courthouse Square Historic District
Elizabethton Historic District (includes the Carter County Courthouse)
Franklin County Courthouse
Franklin Historic District (includes the Old Williamson County Courthouse)
Gainesboro Historic District (includes the Jackson County Courthouse)
Gallatin Commercial Historic District (includes the Sumner County Courthouse)
Gibson County Courthouse
Greeneville Historic District (includes the Greene County Courthouse)
Hamblen County Courthouse
Hamilton County Courthouse
Hartsville Historic District (includes the Trousdale County Courthouse)
James County Courthouse
Jonesborough Historic District (includes the Washington County Courthouse)
Knox County Courthouse
Lauderdale County Courthouse
Lewis County Courthouse
Loudon County Courthouse
Madison County Courthouse
Meigs County Courthouse
Monroe County Courthouse
Moore County Courthouse and Jail
North Washington Historic District (includes the Haywood County Courthouse)
Obion County Courthouse
Overton County Courthouse
Paris Commercial Historic District (includes the Henry County Courthouse)
Perry County Courthouse
Pickett County Courthouse
Polk County Courthouse
Pulaski Courthouse Square Historic District (includes the Giles County Courthouse
Rhea County Courthouse
Roane County Courthouse
Robertson County Courthouse
Rogersville Historic District (includes the Hawkins County Courthouse)
Rutherford County Courthouse
Savannah Historic District (includes the Hardin County Courthouse)
Sequatchie County Courthouse
Sevier County Courthouse
Shelbyville Courthouse Square Historic District (includes the Bedford County Courthouse)
Smith County Courthouse
Somerville Historic District (includes the Fayette County Courthouse)
South Main Street Historic District (includes the Tipton County Courthouse)
Tennessee Supreme Court Building
Wayne County Courthouse
