Rhea County Courthouse (Tennessee)

Infobox_nrhp
name = Rhea County Courthouse
nrhp_type = nhl

---

caption = The Rhea County Courthouse bell tower.
locator_x =
locator_y =
location = 1475 Market Street
Dayton, Tennessee
nearest_city =
lat_degrees = 35
lat_minutes = 29
lat_seconds = 35.4
lat_direction = N
long_degrees = 85
long_minutes = 00
long_seconds = 44.8
long_direction = W
area =
built = 1891
architect = W. Chamberlin
Dowling & Taylor
architecture = Italian villa
Romanesque
designated = December 8, 1976
added = November 7, 1972
refnum = 72001251
mpsub =
governing_body = County of Rhea

The Rhea County Courthouse, located in Dayton, Tennessee was the scene of the Scopes Trial of July 1925, in which teacher John T. Scopes faced charges for including Charles Darwin's theory of evolution in his public school lesson The trial became a clash of titans between the lawyers William Jennings Bryan for the prosecution and Clarence Darrow for the defense, and epitomizes the tension between fundamentalism and modernism in a wide range of aspects of American society.

A $1-million project which restored the second-floor courtroom to the way it looked during the Scopes trial was completed in 1979. A museum of the trial events is located in its basement contains such memorabilia as the microphone used to broadcast the trial, trial records, photographs, and an audiovisual history of the trial. Every July local people re-enact key moments of the trial in the courtroom. [ [http://www.tnhistoryforkids.org/places/scopes_museum Scopes Trial Museum - Tennessee History for Kids ] ] In front of the courthouse stands a commemorative plaque erected by the Tennessee Historical Commission:

2B 23
THE SCOPES TRIAL

Here, from July 10 to 21, 1925 John
Thomas Scopes, a County High School
teacher, was tried for teaching that
a man descended from a lower order
of animals in violation of a lately
passed state law. William Jennings
Bryan assisted the prosecution;
Clarence Darrow, Arthur Garfield
Hays, and Dudley Field Malone the
defense. Scopes was convicted.

The Rhea County Courthouse was designated a National Historic Landmark by the National Park Service in 1976.National Park Service (April 2007). "National Historic Landmarks Survey: List of National Historic Landmarks by State".] It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.cite web | last = National Park Service | first = | authorlink = National Park Service | coauthors = | title = ? | work = National Register Information System | publisher = | date = | url = http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/research/index.htm | format = | doi = | accessdate = 2007-05-15 ]

External links

* [http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NHLS/Text/72001251.pdf National Historic Landmark nomination file on the Rhea County Courthouse]

References