QUINCY, Fla. (WTXL)-- Hal Hentz, the architect known for the Paramount Theater in Atlanta, is originally from Quincy and used his skills to design the Gadsden County Courthouse, which is up the street from his childhood home.
The Executive Director of Quincy Main Street explains Hentz's early beginning.
"Hal Hentz lived here when the shade tobacco industry started up again in the 1880s. So there's a lot of Victorian houses in Quincy, these castles, that Hal Hentz, as a boy was watching going up from the little house that he lived on Jackson Street. I think that influenced him to want to become an architect," said Joe Munroe.
The Gadsden County Courthouse is the center of Quincy's downtown. There are exits on each side of the building, so no matter where you exit, the finest shops at your fingertips.
"This courthouse is the 4th courthouse to occupy the site. It's the 5th courthouse of Gadsden County. In Washington, a building like this would have been clad and marble but here in Quincy..it's yellow brick and the specifications included limestone columns. It doesn't have it, which it was painted to look like limestone, but the dome itself is modeled after Brunelleschi's dome in Florence, Italy."
The courthouse isn't the only structure worth talking about. There's the White House, the Leaf Theater, and the Quincy State Bank. The list goes on but the rest you'll just have to see for yourself.
