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WOODSTOCK COURTHOUSE
When the Court House was constructed, stonemasons were hired to do the carving; some of them were recently arrived from Great Britain where they had a history of expert masonry work. The original plans for the Court House don't show details of the 'fancy' carving on the columns or in any of the terra cotta work, but I expect that the stone masons were given a free hand to just 'get the job done and make it look good'. If you look at all of the columns at the main entrances and at the several towers, you'll note that they are all different, but they seem to look really good together; in fact, unless they look closely at all of the carving, people often don't notice all of the different parts. (Actually, the two towers on either side of the main gable at the front of the Court House are the only two sections that match.) Putting figures on (mainly public) buildings was very popular in the late Victorian era. A building constructed in a similar style and just a few years earlier is the old city hall, in Toronto. There, councillors were depicted in the carvings; apparently the ones who looked favourably on the builder/architect were shown in nice views, those with whom the builder/architect had had disagreements look very grotesque. Actually, carved figures and faces are called grotesques; gargoyles are water downspouts, elaborately carved in shapes of fantasy animals or people. On our Court House then, there are three grotesques on one column (I believe that's the column at the west side) and four grotesques at the east side entrance. Again, there's no real reason for this that we are aware of, it's just the way the stone carvers did their work. The grotesque climbing up the front of the Court House has always created controversy. Some people call it the "court house monkey" and say that it was the original architect's way of getting back at County Council for firing him. However, the sculptured figure doesn't appear on any of the plans and since the architect was fired before the foundation walls were completed, this seems very unlikely. Other people have said that the monkey is the Roman symbol of justice, but we can't substantiate this. Still others say that the sculpture isn't a monkey, but is a 'grinning devil' to keep away evil spirits, similar to those seen on Salisbury Cathedral, in England. Perhaps we just have to accept that all of the carvings are examples bringing back old architectural styles, and just appreciate them for their beauty and uniqueness.
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