On your right, look for the big red-brick courthouse with tall arched windows, wrapped in a black iron fence, and topped by a white clock tower with a green dome.
This is the Old Warren County Courthouse, built in 1868, and it still carries itself like it knows it’s the best-dressed building on the square... because for a long time, it was. The style is Italianate, which is a fancy way of saying: dramatic windows, strong lines, and a tower that makes sure the whole town can tell time whether it asked to or not. Back in 1874, folks bragged it was one of the most elegant courthouses in Kentucky, and it cost about $125,000 then... roughly $3 million in today’s money. The inside got heavily reworked over the years, but the outside stayed remarkably true to its post-Civil War look, right down to this Victorian iron fence and those limestone posts. In 1977, it earned a spot on the National Register of Historic Places, basically the grown-up version of getting a gold star that actually matters.
When you’re ready, the William H. Natcher Federal Building and United States Courthouse is a 5-minute walk heading northwest.
