LOUDON COUNTY, Tenn. — Dust and construction tools were spread around the Loudon County Courthouse on Wednesday — a place where it used to host documents for trials.
Its polished days are over and now, after a fire in 2019, crews are still working to repair the 1872 building. In April, it will be five years since the fire destroyed the courthouse. Van Shaver, a county commissioner, said more damage came when firefighters tried to put out the fire.
"It was an electrical fire, a short circuit of some kind up in the attic," Shaver said. "The fire was really inaccessible — they couldn't get to it to get it out, but they did get it out and the fire did some damage. But, the water was what did most of the damage."
Shaver took WBIR inside for the first time after the fire and showed its current phase.
Walking inside from the south entrance, there's a staircase that meets the right side. It can take someone upstairs, where the courtroom is. That room is where they will hold all their trials.
Steve Harrelson, the Loudon County Circuit Court Clerk, said working without a courthouse has been a challenge.
"You might have a trial in Lenoir City, but your offices are in downtown Loudon and in trying to get all the files and the materials and things that you need for a trial," he said. "We really didn't lose any files, we had a lot of files that were damaged as far as water, smoke damage. We sent all those files off for cleaning."
The halls where the old offices were are still separated and are in the process of getting renovated. One of those offices is Harrelson's and he said he can already visualize how it will look when work on the courthouse is finished.
"The desk will be right here," Harrelson said. "I will be sitting right here."
There are seven vaults inside the courtroom to keep valuables safe, the commissioner and the clerk said. They are fireproof and they usually keep evidence for upcoming trials in there.
The commissioner also said is that they're adding water sprinklers and they're modernizing the whole building while keeping its historical look. Buddy Bradshaw, the Loudon County Mayor, said he hopes the courthouse will open by the end of this year.
But, the contractor told Commissioner Shaver it will most likely be next March before people can walk back into the courthouse.
The cost when this project is finished is going to be around $10 million, and the mayor said there's a lot to look forward to.
"We're gonna have new wiring, everything's gonna be modern. We're gonna have internet, finally. We're gonna have a better camera system than we had in the past," Bradshaw said. "It's gonna be more secure as far as our employees and our elected officials coming in, and so it's going to have the same appeal or same look, but much more modern on the inside."