About this property
The Old Monroe County Courthouse is a historic courthouse building in Monroeville, Alabama that served as the Monroe County courthouse from 1903 to 1963. It is significant as an Alabama literary landmark due to its association with Harper Lee and Truman Capote, both of whom spent their childhood in Monroeville and featured the courthouse in their work. Capote mentions it in his A Christmas Memory and it inspired the fictional courthouse in Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird. The film adaptation of Lee's novel was heavily influenced by the courthouse, with production designers measuring and photographing the building and then recreating a close duplicate of the interior on a sound stage for filming of the courtroom scenes. The producers originally wanted to use the actual courthouse in Monroeville as the movie set, but due to the modernization of the town since Lee's birth in addition to the poor audio quality in the courthouse, they made the backlot in Hollywood instead. Due to the accuracy of the recreated courthouse in Hollywood, many Alabamians still believe that the film was shot in Monroeville. The Old Courthouse in Monroe County is now a theater for many plays on "To Kill a Mockingbird" as well a museum dedicated to multiple authors from Monroeville, including Lee. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2021. The courthouse is now one of the Monroe County Museums and is operated as the Old Courthouse Museum. The building has been restored to a 1930s appearance and also features exhibits about Capote and Lee.
Location
Categories
Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).
Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Everything a full report reveals about Old Monroe County Courthouse
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Questions about this property
When was Old Monroe County Courthouse listed on the National Register?
Old Monroe County Courthouse was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 25, 1973.
What type of historic resource is Old Monroe County Courthouse?
Old Monroe County Courthouse is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.
What is the period of significance for Old Monroe County Courthouse?
The period of significance for Old Monroe County Courthouse is recorded as the industrial era, specifically around 1903.
Can I research the history near Old Monroe County Courthouse?
Yes. Aubrey Research reports search National Register listings, battlefield records, land patents, and other primary historical sources within any radius of a US address. A report for an address near Old Monroe County Courthouse will include this listing and all other historical records in the area.
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