Secrets under the courthouse

Secrets abound below ground at 1 E. Main St., the former Henry County Courthouse.

The courthouse has a cellar divided into two separate chambers, each accessed by its own door at the rear of the courthouse. If you walk into the cellar chamber at right, and head for the back right corner, you see what looks like a hallway veering off to the right, in the direction of (what above the ground is) Jones Street. That tunnel, after a ways in, ends in cement, but many old-timers say it used to run straight through to the hotel on the corner of Jones and Fayette Streets.

The courthouse was built in 1824, and in its early days, many of the people working in the courthouse took their lunch breaks at the hotel’s restaurant. In fact, a bell would ring at the hotel to notify the town, and the courthouse, when lunch was ready, and that bell would signify the court’s break for lunch. Thus, there already was cooperation between the courthouse and the hotel; but according to legend and lore the tunnel was a secret escape route for the judge in case things got out of hand at the courthouse, and/or a place to bring the suspects, out of the public’s eye.

Inside the tunnel, just before the end of it (or barricade which blocks the tunnel’s former path, depending on your take on the matter), look up and you’ll see a round manhole. That is the cover for the former coal chute. From above ground, you can see that coal chute cover at the side lawn of the courthouse, right next to the sidewalk (which is a few feet lower, separated by a retaining wall). How many other coal-chute manholes can you find around town? The coal was used in the boiler which once was in the cellar at right. A square-shaped hole in the upper wall of the basement, on the same wall as the door, is where the boiler’s chimney used to be.

A county jail was once behind the courthouse, torn down in 2004. A boarded up secret compartment at ground level of the jail was discovered, in the area closest to the courthouse. Then, in fall 2023 during construction of the new annex which will house the expansion of the museum, another underground chamber was discovered. It is underneath what used to be a wide cement walkway around the back of the museum, in the area between the courthouse and the former jail. That cement was broken up for construction of the annex. As of this writing, December 2023, some breaks in the cement show the underground cavity, but it’s hard to see because it’s so dark. That area is roped off. It will once again be covered up as the annex progresses.

So what was that tunnel, really? Was it just the way to the coal chute, or was it really a secret tunnel to and from the hotel?