The History Center of Berrien County, 313 N Cass St, Berrien Springs MI ~ July 27, 2023

If you want to see the oldest existing county courthouse in Michigan, this is the place. (It's not the oldest still-in-use-as-a-courthouse building. That would be Lapeer County Courthouse.)

It was built in 1839 and served as the county courthouse until 1894. Subsequent uses include being rented by a college and by a 7th Day Adventist Church. The church bought the building in 1922 and moved out in 1966. In 1976, the courthouse opened as a museum. This courthouse square contains four other buildings as well and we started with the courthouse.

Information and artifacts are hung throughout the courthouse.

Behind the courthouse stands Murdock's Log Cabin, which the History Center claims is the oldest two-story cabin in its original state in Michigan. It was moved here from its original location in 1973.

The third building we visited was the old sheriff's residence. The jail was torn down in 1916.

The Records Building is currently not open to the public.

And lastly, the forge and buggy shop is a recreation and not a historic structure. It was built in 1978 and was still fun to poke around in.

The only personnel we encountered was a person in the courthouse who was friendly and informative. Other than that, we had the place to ourselves and enjoyed walking through some history.