Old Clay County Courthouse (West Virginia)

The Old Clay County Courthouse in Clay, West Virginia was designed by Frank Packard and built in 1902. The Beaux-Arts building was located on a hill overlooking the county seat. The courthouse was the site of three notable trials: the Sarah Ann Legg trial of 1905, the first trial of a woman in Clay County for murder, the Booger Hole trial of 1917, in which citizens nearly lynched the defendants, and the Oscar Bail trial of 1953, in which Bail was convicted of killing a mine guard in the Great Widen Coal Strike. Since a new courthouse opened across the street, the old courthouse houses magistrate's offices and the county extension agent.