Spotlight: Salem County Courthouse

The oldest legal building in New Jersey isn’t in Newark, Jersey City or Trenton. It’s in the smallest county seat in the smallest county by population in the state.

The old Salem County Courthouse is the oldest active courthouse in New Jersey and is the second oldest courthouse in continuous use in the United States.

The oldest courthouse in the nation is the King William County Courthouse in Virginia, which was building in 1725, 10 years before the Salem County Courthouse.

The Salem County Courthouse was built in 1735 during the reign of King George II using locally manufactured bricks. Judge William Hancock of the King’s Court presided; he was later killed unintentionally by the British on March 21, 1778 during the Massacre at Hancock’s Bridge, At least 20 members of the Salem militia lost their lives, some after attempting to surrender. After the Revolutionary War, the courthouse the scene of the “treason trials,” during which suspected British sympathizers were put on trial for allegedly aiding the British. Four men were convicted and sentenced to death for treason; however, they were pardoned by Governor William Livingston and exiled from New Jersey.

The courthouse was enlarged in 1817 and was subsequently remodeled and enlarged in 1908. The building’s distinctive bell tower remains essentially unchanged.

A modern Salem County Courthouse was built in the late 1960s and is undergoing an expansion project scheduled to be completed in 2024. A three-story, 47,000-square-foot addition constructed behind the existing courthouse and connected to the existing building, opened in January 2024. The 1960s-era building is being renovated.

The old courthouse also is the site of the legend of Col. Robert Gibbon Johnson, who in 1820 ate a basket of tomatoes in front of a large crowd to prove they were not poisonous. Before 1820, Americans assumed tomatoes were lethal.

That event forged a connection between the city and the tomato. H.J. Heinz operated a factory that processed tomatoes into ketchup and chili from 1905 until 1977. The Salem Tomato Festival is held on the third Saturday of August each year to celebrate the area’s connection to the fruit.