With little fanfare, Baltimore County opens new courthouse in Towson

The new $10 million Baltimore County District Courthouse quietly opened yesterday in Towson with only a few minor glitches.

Not all the telephones had working numbers and some of the mail was misplaced in moving boxes.

But for the most part, the move has been a smooth one, said Chief Judge Robert F. Sweeney.

The two-story courthouse at 120 E. Chesapeake Ave., behind the LTC Towson library, has six courtrooms, attorney-client conference rooms, separate entrances for jail inmates and a glass-enclosed vestibule.

The courthouse had been in rented office space on the first floor of a parking garage on Allegheny Avenue. Whenever a large truck would park in the garage, the vibrations could be felt throughout the courtrooms.

The new courthouse is the first step in a plan to consolidate the county's district courtrooms into three courthouses. There are five district courthouses -- in Essex, Catonsville, Owings Mills, Dundalk and Towson. But by 1997 the Owings Mills and Dundalk facilities are due to close.