A short bit of historical(?) fiction
Exported from Substack
The story below was created as a free-write exercise in April 2024, and promptly forgotten about until I stumbled across it by accident yesterday and thought, “Say, this is kind of amusing.” If this is the sort of thing you’d enjoy seeing more frequently from this account, let me know?
The Historic Caldwell County Courthouse is the oldest extant courthouse in Caldwell County, [REDACTED]. The eighth courthouse known to have been built in the county since it was officially formed in 1831, it is characterized by its colonial style, with a ogee-style roof and gables on three corners, as well as a bell tower (later replaced by a clock). The previous seven Caldwell County courthouses were all destroyed by fire, leading the Historic Caldwell County Courthouse to be built of brick, and using the most modern fire-prevention technology available at the time (which was mostly brick). It ceased operations as a courthouse in 1957, and was the city museum until a new, larger museum building was built in 1980, after a generous bequest was donated from the will of a prominent community member, earmarked for that purpose.
The courthouse then briefly fell into private hands, and was the source of a local mystery for several years, during which someone appeared to be living in the space and doing renovations at the same time – however, no one was able to ascertain exactly who lived there, and no local contractors ever admitted to being hired for the work. In 1984, a large sign appeared outside, reading “COMING SOON: WYNN AND MOON,” which only fueled greater speculation and confusion. The sign was replaced about a month later with a sign reading “THIS SUMMER: Wynn City Specialty Club, featuring the Moonside Trio” (there is no Wynn City in [REDACTED], and no one had ever heard of a local musician named Moon, or a band called the Moonside Trio). An item in a local newspaper appeared three weeks after this new sign appeared, stating that a liquor license had been applied for and denied. The day this report came out, the sign was removed, and the windows of the former courthouse were boarded up. It was another five years before the city regained control of the building, although it was reported that a condition of the sale was that they never reveal the name of the seller or share any details of what the building had looked like before they took over. It was opened a year later as a community center, with children’s story hours, day care, a senior reading room, and a small collection of books for the blind in braille and on audiocassette. It retains its community center status to this day.
It was not until 2008 that a book was published by a small local publisher under the title Coming Soon, Wynn and Moon: The Mystery of the Caldwell County Courthouse. It was purported that the previous mystery owner of the courthouse had consented to tell their story to the author, a journalist from the nearby state of [REDACTED] named Clement Grisbold, on the grounds that it not be published until after Grisbold’s death, The book was a best-seller locally, and even gained some national attention in outre art circles. It told the story of Isolde Van Sneff, an independently wealthy artist from New York City whose mother had invented White Out and left her a vast fortune, who made a nationwide search for a small local building with historical significance that she could purchase and turn into a nightclub and art gallery, in order to bring “big city art to small city spaces.” Isolde was, unfortunately, a poor businesswoman and made unwise choices, such as hiring fellow artists to do wiring and plumbing, and not inviting any involvement from local authorities until the last moment. When she was finally faced with an inability to get a business or liquor license for operating her club, she abandoned the entire project and moved back to New York.
For 10 years, this story made the rounds of the outsider art world and eventually made its way to Reddit, where a small group of independent journalists decided to track down Isolde Van Sneff and find out what she had been up to since then. They eventually uncovered that almost nothing in Grisbold’s book was true, and that there was absolutely no record of a person named Isolde Van Sneff ever existing. The original business application for the Wynn City Specialty Club had been made in the name of Timothy Clement, who it was discovered was Clement Grisbold’s uncle. Sadly, by this time both Clement and Grisbold had passed away, so neither was able to be questioned regarding the truth of the Courthouse mystery or the reason for the lies.
As of printing, the Caldwell County Courthouse mystery remains a mystery.
I love this.