Essex County Seal





Old Clerk's Office: Court records show that in 1808 there was ordered the building of a "Clerk's Office with walls 1 1/2 brick thick, by 32 by 18 feet, roof covered by slate and to have one room 18 by 22 and the other 18 by 10. The office room to have a floor of brick or stone and the other room planked." One year later an additional chimney was ordered, and the records were ordered to be removed to the new Clerk's Office. (They had been kept at Smithfield by the Clerks Lees).

This building ordered erected at Prince and Cross Streets is still standing; it was used as a Clerk's Office until 1848 when that Office was moved into the new Courthouse; it was used as an ordinary, shop, and strap-lined County Jail. In 1926 the late Mrs. Jessie Ball DuPont, while her husband was renovating the Courthouse, had the jail lining removed and the building renovated. Since that time it has been the Essex County Public Library and now is the Essex County Woman's Club headquarters.
 
     
     

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