Carrollton Courthouse

The Carrollton Courthouse (also Carrollton Court House) is a historic courthouse in Carrollton neighborhood of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the United States. Built in 1855, the building was originally used as a courthouse before being used by several schools. As of February 2017 it is vacant.

The Carrollton Courthouse is located at 719 Carrollton Avenue, formerly at the foot of Canal Street.

It was once the courthouse for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, before the town of Carrollton (incorporated on March 10, 1845), before the town's annexation by New Orleans in 1874. The building was constructed in 1855, after Carrollton became the seat of Jefferson Parish after Lafayette (previously the parish seat) had been annexed by New Orleans three years earlier. The courthouse was built alongside a new jail. The property was purchased from C.C. Duncan for $7,000.

Henry Howard, a prominent New Orleans architect, designed the building in the Greek Revival style. Robert Crozier and Frederick Wing were the builders. The cost of construction was $59,000. Construction began in 1854 and was completed in late 1855, during the mayoralty of J. L. Donnellan.

The courthouse operated for nineteen years, and during this period those sentenced to death were hanged behind the courthouse. A number of noteworthy events in Louisiana legal history took place in the building. In 1858, an election dispute was heard in the building after an election for mayor and council in the Town of Carrollton was marred by armed violence and intimidation. The district judge nullified the election, but the Louisiana Supreme Court reversed, finding that the residents challenging the election lacked standing to contest the result. In 1858, the case Joseph Tom v. The Slave Ernest was heard, and the district judge decided that "Slaves are persons, not things, and cannot therefore be seized provisionally." In 1865, a murder trial took place in which the trial judge held that the dying declaration of the ten-year-old victim could be admitted into evidence; the ruling was upheld the next year by the Louisiana Supreme Court.

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