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{{Infobox Building|image=OldCourthouse.jpg|caption=|name=Old Escambia County Courthouse|location=|architect=Pettisen and Pettisen|client=|engineer=[[S. S. Harvey]]|owner=|construction_start_date=|completion_date=[[March 10]], [[1885]]|renovations=[[1922]]|date_demolished=[[1938]]|cost=$41,950|structural_system=|style=Victorian Romanesque|size=|mapcode=}}{{for|the newer building that still stands at [[Palafox Street|Palafox]] and [[Government Street|Government]]s|Escambia County Courthouse}}
The '''Old Escambia County Courthouse''' was a building on the northwest corner of [[Palafox Street|Palafox]] and [[Chase Street]]s that served as the headquarters of county government from [[1885]] until [[1937]]. It was razed in [[1938]] to make way for the [[United States Post Office and Courthouse]].
The [[Escambia County Board of Commissioners|Commissioners]] petitioned the Florida legislature in [[1870]] for permission to levy a short-term supplementary property tax of three mills to fund a new courthouse. The tax was approved, but funds were collected slowly, drawing criticism.
{{cquote|The public records of the county for want of a suitable court house have been twice exposed to imminent danger from which they were barely rescued by the self denying efforts and energy of the [[Escambia County Clerk of Court|county clerk]], who allowed his own property to burn while rescuing the public archives. … The county is now paying for rent of courtroom and offices more money than is necessary to pay the interest on the bonds…|20px|20px|[[J. Dennis Wolfe]], editor, ''The [[Pensacola Commercial]]''}}==Construction==On [[July 6]], [[1880]], County Attorney [[Stephen R. Russell Mallory]] was authorized to negotiate the purchase of the lot at [[Palafox Street|Palafox]] and [[Chase Street]]s. It was sold by [[George Brosnaham]] for $3,250. Plans by the architectual firm Pettisen and Pettisen were approved in April [[1883]] and called Philadelphia bricks and Vermont marble. (Commissioner [[John W. Crary]], a brick manufacturer by trade, claimed that construction costs could be cut in half by using local brick and Alabama limestone, but he was overruled by fellow commissioners [[Benjamin R. Pitt]], [[Pettiscen Albert Riera]] and Pettiscen[[F. E. Richardson]] .) Some controversy arose after Commissioner [[S. S. Harvey]] resigned on [[June 25]], [[1883]] to bid on the courthouse construction. When the bids were approved unsealed later that day, Harvey's bid of $41,950 was about $500 lower than competing contractors [[L. C. Bennett]] and [[A. V. Clubbs]], raising questions of impropriety. Nevertheless, construction went forward and was completed on [[March 10]], [[1885]]. The two-and-a-half-story courthouse was built in April Victorian Romanesque style. The church-like architecture was unusual for the area, and one writer to the ''[[1883Pensacola Commercial]]'' said the building "might have been appropriate for bed posts and chair runs for the castle of some giant or fairy."
