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John Rita, a conservator of art and architecture, said buildings talk to him. As a young boy, he wrote in his journal, "I see faces in the paint peelings as an erosion of time," and that it gives him a feeling of those who came before him.
Preserving the past while looking to the future was the challenge Rita and his team faced when they took on the work of renovating the second floor of the Blair County Courthouse, which includes restoring two courtrooms and the lawyers' lobby to their original state, before years of neglect and poorly executed renovations destroyed its grandeur.
On Friday morning, Feb. 1, the second floor of the courthouse was opened for the public to tour the recently renovated lawyers' lobby and see the progress of the large 1875 courtroom and the 1906 courtroom.
For Blair County Commissioner Terry Tomassetti, the renovations of the second floor of the courthouse have been a "passion project" since 2013.
"I am excited and relieved because one of my goals as commissioner was to fix these two courtrooms," he said.
Tomassetti said conditions in both courtrooms were bad from years of water damage, along with coat after coat of paint that covered original woodwork and emblems of the scales of justice.
Addressing the group assembled for the tour, Tomassetti said the restoration work is righting some wrongs that were made in the past.
"Hopefully today Blair County leaves behind the dark ages of deterioration and in some cases desecration," he said.
Senior Judge Jolene Grubb Kopriva said the renovation of the courtrooms, especially the 1875 room, is a "dream come true" for her.
Kopriva said that at some point a judge's chamber was added to the 1875 courtroom and it dramatically affected the acoustics of the room.
She said it made it difficult to hear and that could create serious problems during testimony.
The removal of the chamber has restored the room's acoustics, and Kopriva said that, along with the other renovations planned for the courtrooms, are important in upholding the dignity of the court.
"The environment is critical to justice," she said. "There needs to feel a sense of safety, there needs to feel a sense of dignity and respect and there needs to be a sense of comfort."
Kopriva sat on the bench in Blair County for 30 years and had to deal with the sound difficulties in the 1875 courtroom almost daily, but said she remembers what it was like before the chamber was put in.
"I sat in this courtroom in its original state without that chamber in it," she said. "Fast forward and I come back here as an attorney and then a judge and it's here. So I knew what this room could be."
Tomassetti agreed that the 1875 courthouse was a challenging place to hold sessions.
"As a lawyer, it was just an absolute terrible place for proceedings," he said. "You couldn't talk, you couldn't hear, it showed disrespect to the people who were here."
Tomassetti said the courthouse is "the most important building in Blair County" and that the 1875 courtroom is the most important room in the most important building in the county.
"What goes on in this building is the administration of justice," he said. "This has been the site of ongoing justice since 1877 and to me that sends a strong message of how we tie our past to our future and the continuity of administering justice to our citizens."
Commissioner Bruce Erb said renovating the courthouse and preserving its past will serve the county longer than a new building would.
"We have chosen to spend significantly less money to preserve and restore this historic courthouse that will last at least another century as opposed to building a new complex for far more money that would never serve as long," he said.
Rita said funding is a challenge facing any potential restoration. And when it came to the Blair County Courthouse the question was to "either continue this building to service, or add it to the ashes of time."
The commissioners chose to continue the buildings service, and take on the challenge of funding its most important rooms resurrection.
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