My original plan was to write a three-part series about the ongoing renovation project at the Historic Green County Courthouse.  Today’s article was to be the third and final on this topic.  My original plan flew out the window, because, well, you know what they say about the best laid plans…

Here’s the short story, for those who like to mainly read headlines:  The Historic Green County Courthouse renovation project will take longer than anticipated and cost more than what was budgeted. 

But I’ve been getting some feedback from readers who like details, so I’ll keep sharing them.  The final column count on this topic is up in the air — just like the boom of the crane you’ll soon see on the downtown Square.

As I mentioned before, the exterior walls of the Historic Green County Courthouse do not have a metal or wooden framework like you would find in a contemporary structure.  When the Courthouse was built, plans called for brick walls — three bricks thick — held together with mortar. 

Bricks are porous.  Mortar is porous. Water leaked in.  Water froze.  Water thawed.  Bad things happened. 

At some point in the history of the building, sections of interior attic walls were plastered.  This plaster coating not only hid the decay, it also accelerated it by contributing to moisture retention.

As scaffolding went up for what started out as a roofing project, workers discovered wall areas with crumbling mortar.  They also found some large limestone blocks held in place mostly by gravity.  The engineering report summed it up with the statement “exterior wall distress is consistent with freeze-thaw deterioration of mortar over time.” 

It was determined that before the roof could be replaced, repairs would be necessary to many areas of the building and towers at the attic level.  So far, workers have made good progress with repairs on the north side of the building and the northeast tower.  Due to the cold weather, they have to heat and work in one small area at a time.  Mortar won’t set if temperatures are below freezing.

Turrets (the round towers) are very cool architectural features, but the turrets on this building are posing some interesting challenges.  You might expect the curved brick walls of a turret to stop curving and simply join up at a bit of an odd angle when meeting with the adjacent flat brick wall.  But the curved walls of these turrets actually continue for several feet into the attic.

In the northwest tower above my office, engineers discovered an “unnatural bend” in this curved wall within the attic.  It seems there was an error in calculating the radius of the curvature when the tower was built.  Someone then decided to make a wonky bend in the wall so it could meet up with a joist that was in the wrong spot due to the bad calculation.  Unfortunately, this joist failed, and the supports the joist sits on are also deficient. 

Last week, it sounded like cattle were stampeding above my office.  Bits of broken plaster showered down on the ceiling tiles that separate my work space from the attic.  Scaffolding was being hammered into formation so masons can begin working in a heated space inside the turret.  The decayed areas of the curved walls will be dismantled and rebuilt inside and out. 

Soon a crane will be set up on the inner ring parking area on the east side of the building.  This will allow the work crew to partially dismantle the east gable from the roof peak down to the windows.  There is extensive mortar separation here in an area that to me resembles a checkerboard — with tan limestone blocks alternating with red sandstone blocks.  Both are highly porous, and therefore susceptible to the freeze-thaw problems.  The larger limestone trim blocks will be removed by the crane operator and set aside in the yard.  They’ll be labeled as to their location and reinstalled as the wall is rebuilt.

I’ll be back next month with a look at some of the next steps and the revised budget for this project.

— Noreen Rueckert is director for Green County Tourism and Green County Cheese Days, and helps out with Main Street Monroe’s Concerts on the Square. Her favorite cheese is rumored to be Feta. She has the best office in the county — overlooking Monroe’s Square from the tower of the Historic Green County Courthouse. She dabbles in photography and graphic design, adores cats and iced coffee, and secretly loves the Cheese Days Song.