The Jackson County Courthouse is situated on a hill at the end of main street, and there are 107 steps leading up to its front
portico from the fountain and plaza at street level. It is a two-story,
Classical Revival style brick buildings with a three-stage
cupola. It was built after
Charles Joseph Harris pushed the county to vote for the removal of the
county seat from Webster (where it had been since 1851) to Sylva, and the measure passed and the seat was relocated. Harris then as part of the agreement built a courthouse with the sum of money not exceeding $30,000. The building was patterned after the
Madison County Courthouse in
Marshall, North Carolina. The 1913
Courthouse served as the county's
courthouse from 1914 until the present
Justice Center was built in 1994 on Grindstaff Cove Road east of town near
US 74. It had been previously
renovated in 1950 when the
mezzanine third floor was painted white and four windows were added to the front and back of the third floor. It was renovated again in 1969, when the red bricks were painted white, a clock added to the dome, the
pine trees along the steps that hid the building from the street and lined the steps were also removed. In 2007, the Courthouse site was selected for the location of the new
Jackson County Public Library. The old Jail from 1963 was
demolished at this time, and the original jail from 1913 was demolished in 2009, when the new library started being constructed. The Jackson County Courthouse was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places in 1979. ==The jails==