The Franklin County Courthouse is a located at Main and Anson Streets in Farmington, Maine, the county seat of Franklin County. The 1885 represents a sophisticated designed by George M. Coombs, with an addition in 1917 by Coombs' son Harry. The building, the county's first purpose-built courthouse, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.ArchitectureThe courthouse is set in a small park just on the northern edge of Farmington's central business district, bounded by Main, Anson, Cony, and Church Streets. It is a 3-1/2 story red brick structure, roughly rectangular in shape, with high-style Victorian Italianate features. It has a hip roof which is crowned by a small square tower with a louvered ventilator, clock, and metal dome with weathervane. Each of three facades has a central pavilion which projects slightly and is topped by a gable section. The corners of the pavilions and the building have brick quoining on the first level, with pilasters at the building corners and between the bays on the elongated second level.Farmington was designated the seat of Franklin County in 1838. The county court first met in a converted meeting house, which also housed town offices. This courthouse was built in 1885 on the site of this first building, to a design by the prolific and noted Lewiston architect George M. Coombs. Coombs designed a number of buildings in Farmington, particularly in the wake of a major fire that swept through the town in the 1880s. The annex to the courthouse was designed by his son Harry and completed in 1917.
