BURLINGTON — Replicating Lawrence County’s first courthouse is in the hands of a Columbus architect who will create an artistic rendering of the structure that was built in Burlington in 1816.

“We want several different views,” Bill Pratt, Lawrence County Commissioner, said. “Once we have the rendering, we can start a donation drive.”

Pratt heads up an ad hoc committee to come up with ways to celebrate the county’s bicentennial in about a year.

“It will be big enough and nice enough that it will truly be a community building,” Pratt said.

The outside the building will resemble the original structure, while the interior will be only one-story.

“In the back will be a mezzanine, bathrooms and a kitchenette,” Pratt said. “If we made it two stories, we’d have to have a sprinkler system that would cost more and throw off the historical significance.”

While the original was out of brick that was made in Burlington, this structure will be of oversized block to imitate the original materials.

“We are starting to gather our figures together to know what we will need,” he said.

The genealogical department of the Briggs Lawrence County Library is interested in setting up a family history satellite in the eastern end and the building could also be used for weddings, the commissioner said.

When the drawing is completed, a fundraising campaign will start where honorary bicentennial committee memberships will be solicited with a specially created bicentennial flag offered as a gift.

The committee is also dedicating each month of 2016 to a different aspect of 19th century county life.

“There could be a celebration of the last 200 years of agriculture,” Pratt said. “We would tell that history or black history or the furnaces.”