The Howard County Courthouse is getting a new roof. Work began last week by Elite Roofing.

The project is expected to take five to six weeks to complete, depending on weather, at the cost of $230,000. The repair is being paid for by ARPA funds the county received.

The roof on the bandstand and gutters will also be replaced.

Much of the roof is still original slate, although areas have been patched over the last century. The new roof will be made of imitation slate that is expected to last 80 to 100 years. It will match the style of the original roof and was approved by the state Historic Preservation Commission.

The courthouse is the third for Howard County in Fayette. The original courthouse was completed sometime around 1828, around five years after the county seat was moved from Franklin to Fayette.

A second, larger courthouse was built in 1857 by Joseph Megraw at the cost of $25,000. The two-story, brick porticoed building featured a balustrade that concealed the tin-covered roof. Wings were later added sometime prior to 1883. It was destroyed by fire on December 1, 1886.

The cornerstone ceremony for the current courthouse took place on September 15, 1887. It was built at the cost of $32,942 after voters hastily approved the new project to keep the courthouse in Fayette. (Members of the Glasgow community tried to seize the opportunity to move the county seat there.)

Eighty-nine years later, in 1968, a $350,000 bond issue paid for remodeling and exterior renovation for the building that was in a deteriorated state. On New Year’s Eve, 1975, a fire gutted the building. While the exterior walls remained, the interior design had been lost.