This is a question my father asked me, so I cannot guarantee what he said is correct. He said that federal courthouses have eight columns out front and state / local courthouses have only six. What is the significance of this?
Your father is wrong.
Okay… as I said, I didn’t know if what he said was true. But, since the subject was brought up, are there the same number of columns on all courthouses… is there anything up with this? More info please.
Some have many columns, others have none at all. Nothing to it except the whims of the architect and the people commissioning the courthouse.
Here in Boston, the new federal courthouse does not have any columns out front.
The one it replaced is now used as a temporary home for some of the Suffolk County courts. It seems to have 4 pseudo-columns out front, and no real ones.
I also don’t think the new Suffolk County courthouse (not the really new one, the high rise one) has any columns either. And the old Suffolk County courthouse (currently being renovated) looks as if it only has two.
The Edward W. Brooke Courthouse, which is the really new one, does indeed have a row of six columns up top, but there are also two down below.
Doesn’t seem to be any specific pattern.
Consider, too, the Supreme Court – the daddy of all federal courts: It has 16 columns out front.
You can see a picture here
Without getting too technical, the number of columns depends on the classical style that the architect decided to use. Not column style, but building style, which proscribes the number of columns and their spacing and location.