Shiny, new copper dome adorns courthouse

Suwannee County Courthouse repaired copper dome and finial. They say it’s already turning green! -Photo by Marcus Durham

By Tami Stevenson

Repairs to the dome at the top of the historic Suwannee County Courthouse are finished. Passers by can now enjoy the new look without peering through the scaffolding.

Suwannee County Courthouse just before O’Neal Roofing took the scaffolding down in mid August. -SVT Photo by Tami Stevenson

     In 2024, Hurricane Helene damaged two of the dome’s copper panels, and the clock faces (which were previously repaired).

     The County Commission awarded the project to O’Neal Roofing in April. He was to remove and replace all of the copper panels around the dome.

     Only two were damaged, but according to Marcus Durham, the county’s facilities director, the new patina would never match the 122 year old patina, so they decided to replace the entire thing, which was budgeted at $350K.

     The work began in May and was expected to take 2-3 months. They were thru by mid-August and came in just under budget.

     Durham said the new copper is actually of heavier gauge than the old copper. But the main thing was that the old patina would never match the new patina.

     When asked what they did with the old copper, he said they scrapped out most of it, took the funds and put them back into general revenue.

     “Most people don’t know this, but the copper finial at the top also had to be replaced,” said Durham. “O’Neal subcontracted that out to a company that specializes in that kind of fabrication work. They created it in one solid piece as opposed to the original, which was in tiny pieces.” He added the budget surprised them on that one, it came in less than $5,000,  “I may just be partial, but I think the new finial looks better than the old one did.” He said if you see it up close, it has a lot of detail in it.

A little bit of History

The origins of the Suwannee County Courthouse date back to a period of unprecedented economic prosperity and growth at the turn of the 20th century.

     In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Live Oak exploded into a major railroad, lumber, and agricultural hub. By 1905, it had grown so rapidly that it was officially the fifth-largest city in Florida (and the state’s largest inland city). 

     Prior to 1904, the county relied on a modest, wooden courthouse built in 1873 that ultimately burned down. Because Live Oak was now rivaling the largest cities in the American South, county leaders decided that a basic wooden replacement would no longer suffice. They wanted a grand, permanent monument made from yellow brick that reflected their booming wealth.

     The Suwannee County Courthouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.

It is one of the oldest operational courthouses in Florida.