Long before Sevierville became the bustling gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains, it was a quiet, isolated community surrounded by forest. Reaching it meant solitary winds along rough roads that hugged the rivers and foothills- far removed from the kind of traffic the town sees in modern times. All of that is what makes its towering courthouse so remarkable! It’s a bold architectural statement even today.
Named after the first governor of Tennessee and Revolutionary War hero John Sevier1, Sevier County was formed out of neighboring Jefferson County in 1794. More than a decade earlier, frontiersman Isaac Thomas had established a farm and tavern where the West Fork meets the Little Pigeon River. The spot became a natural gathering place, and before long, a small settlement known as Forks of the Little Pigeon took root. In 1895, officials selected the growing community as the county seat and gave it a new name: Sevierville2.
According to local lore, Sevier County’s early courts were held in an abandoned stable on James McMahan’s land. The story goes that a few exasperated lawyers paid someone a bottle of whiskey to burn the makeshift courthouse down3! Other accounts suggest a less fiery ending, claiming the stable was remodeled and used until 18204. Whatever the truth, the county soon traded up: a modest frame courthouse came next, followed by a more stately brick building in 1851. Sadly, that one met a fiery fate too and burned to the ground just five years after its construction5.
Sevier County’s next courthouse was a two-story brick building with a wide front portico and entrance framed by four enormous columns6. The structure lasted for nearly forty years before officials hired the McDonald Brothers of Louisville, Kentucky, to design a replacement in 1895. That’s the building that stands downtown today.
Founded in 1878, McDonald Brothers was an architectural powerhouse led by three siblings, Kenneth, Harry, and Donald McDonald7. From their Louisville office, the trio left their stamp all across the Midwest and Upper South, where they were responsible for at least a dozen courthouses in Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, and Tennessee. I’ve visited several of their works myself, and it’s easy to see why the McDonald Brothers’ designs are synonymous with the classic courthouse silhouette that continues to define so many small towns.
In Sevierville, the McDonald Brothers planned their $22,000 courthouse in the Beaux-Arts Classicist mode8. Facing east, the building’s primary facade features three arches on the first story and five on the second. Each corner consists of a decorative projection with a central cupola surrounded by three smaller ornaments that resemble minarets9…