The Most Famous Courtroom in America

This is the courtroom in which A.C. Lee, Nelle Harper Lee's father, practiced law. As a child, Nelle would sit in the balcony and watch him.

The producer of the film, Alan Pakula, wanted to shoot the film in Monroeville. However, Monroeville in the 1960s looked nothing like Monroeville in the 1930s. Depression Era Maycomb had to be recreated in a Hollywood back lot. To prepare for the film, many of those involved visited Monroeville, and the man who designed the sets, Art Director Henry Bumstead, knew this courtroom was key. He knew he had to get it just right, to reproduce it exactly on a Hollywood sound stage.

Bumstead and his crew likewise created the rest of Maycomb, from the Finch house to the town square to the Radley house. When Lee visited the set, she commented on its realism, saying she felt like she could sit right down on one of the porches just like she would at home. The set design of the film was remarkable, and Bumstead, with Alexander Golitzen and Oliver Emert, won the Academy Award for Best Art Direction-Set Direction, Black-and-White.

Follow this link to view Bumstead's storyboards and compare them to stills from the film itself.

The novel and film made this courtroom an icon, and people come from all over the world to visit it.


Created with flickr slideshow.