All new furniture is now in place in the renovated sheriff’s office on Robinson Road.
Gail Allen | R-H photos
An unusual lamp was acquired to add an antique look to the newly remodeled sheriff’s office.
WASHINGTON COURT HOUSE — Thanks to major renovations following a flooding issue, some history has returned to the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office.
In December of 2022, the damage to the FCSO’s new facility on Robinson Road was extensive. An overhead modified water line broke and flooded Sheriff Vernon Stanforth’s office and the carpeted area into the next door office, according to Stanforth.
Everything on the floor was damaged, including all the office furniture, he said. It was a hot water pipe and the steam and water burst into the room hitting everything except the pictures on the walls. His historic barber chair was not damaged.
A contractor who participated in the build of the new facility on Robinson Road, Frye Mechanical, Inc., filed an insurance claim and all the furniture in his office is new, Stanforth said.
An antique telephone sets on his desk, said to be from around 1895, with no dial capability. All calls went through the main switchboard phone operator back then.
Stanforth said Orland Hays, who was sheriff from 1945 to 1961, cleaned out the sheriff’s office when he left and the newly-elected sheriff, Donald Thompson, took over. All that was left was a desk and telephone. Thompson served as sheriff from 1961 to 1981.
The sheriff’s office in the old days was in the sheriff’s home. Then, an office opened in the basement of the county courthouse until March of 1958. The official residence was then moved to the second floor of the old jail facility, which has since been torn down after the new Robinson Road facility was built. After Hays left office and the second floor residence, Thompson moved in, but he was the last sheriff to reside in that residence, Stanforth said.
Another piece of memorabilia that Stanforth acquired was a lamp previously owned by Deputy Bob Cannon, before Cannon moved to Florida after his wife died. The lamp, which he is proud to own, he said, sets on a table at the back of his office lending an antique look with the new furniture.
For more information on previous county sheriffs, the book “I Solemnly Swear” written by Deputy Robert A. Russell is available at the Carnegie Public Library.
