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Wapello County Courthouse | |
 | |
| Location | 101 W. 4th St. Ottumwa, Iowa, USA |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 41°1′11.75″N 92°24′38.62″W / 41.0199306°N 92.4107278°W |
| Built | 1892–1894 |
| Architect | Foster & Liebbe |
| Architectural style | Richardsonian Romanesque |
| MPS | County Courthouses in Iowa Thematic Resource |
| NRHP reference No. | 81000272[1] |
| Added to NRHP | July 2, 1981 |
The Wapello County Courthouse is a Registered Historic Place in the Wapello County, Iowa county seat of Ottumwa. The building stands on the northern edge of the city's central park and downtown commercial district. The current structure was completed in 1894 and was preceded by three other buildings. The Wapello County Courthouse was designed by Des Moines architects Foster & Liebbe in the Richardsonian Romanesque style of architecture. A large corner clock tower, perhaps its most distinguishing feature, was removed in 1950 due to safety concerns.
History[edit]
Wapello County was fully organized on March 1, 1844, separating it from Jefferson County for judicial and election purposes.[2] Ottumwa (known as Louisville until November 1845) has always been the county seat, and four different buildings have served as the county courthouse.[3] It was extremely common for Iowa courthouses to follow this multiple structure pattern; imposing, ornamental wonders were not architecturally fashionable nor economically feasible until the late nineteenth century.[4]
Log cabin[edit]
The first building used to serve the purposes of a county courthouse was a single-story log cabin built sometime before 1846.[5] Constructed from unhewn logs held together with clay and covered with clapboards, it stood approximately one block east of the present structure. The records of the first Commissioners' Court were scant even on official matters, so it is unsurprising that very little is known about this first structure. It was eventually torn down after a new courthouse was constructed in 1846.[5]
First courthouse[edit]
In 1846, the first building in Wapello County erected for public use served primarily as the courthouse.[5] It was a modest two-story frame structure, each story with 576 square feet (53.5 m2). The total cost was $1,000, and the building was one block southeast of the current structure at the intersection of Market and Third Streets.[5] The ground floor served several functions: schoolhouse, courtroom, gathering hall for religious and political meetings, and dance hall. Upstairs there were three rooms for the county clerk, county recorder, and county treasurer. This building was sold to Ottumwa's Christian Church in 1855 after the completion of a second courthouse, sold again to a private wagon manufacturer soon after, and burned down on October 22, 1872.[5]
Second courthouse[edit]
The second structure built as the Wapello County Courthouse was completed in 1855 at a cost of $13,000.[6] Although still two stories, this building was constructed from brick and nearly four times the size of the previous structure at about 2,400 square feet (220 m2) per story. It was built on the northwest corner of Court and Fourth Streets, on the same site as today's courthouse. In this courthouse, the lower floor provided office space for county officials while the upper floor housed the courtroom and jury rooms. The building served Wapello County until 1891 when a referendum was passed by the voters to issue bonds in the amount of $100,000 for a new courthouse building to replace it. It was razed anon afterward.[7]
Present courthouse[edit]
County officials contacted Des Moines architects William Foster and Henry Frantz Liebbe, whose practice was among the most prominent in the state at the time,[8] to design a new courthouse for Wapello County. Plans were drawn for a large, essentially square design in the popular Richardsonian Romanesque style. The cornerstone was laid with Masonic rites on September 28, 1892. Listed on the cornerstone along with the architects are contractor C. Stafford, local construction superintendent F.H.W. Young, and the date of the building's erection and cornerstone-laying ceremony (in Anno Lucis).[9] The building was completed in 1894 at a cost of about $135,000 and dedicated on May 17.[7][10]
Architecture[edit]
Exterior[edit]
Interior[edit]
Significance[edit]
Notes[edit]
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2009-03-13.
- ^ "Iowa Commentary". Iowa Atlas of Historical County Boundaries. Retrieved 2009-08-04.
- ^ Waterman, pp. 97–101.
- ^ National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, (PDF), County Courthouses of Iowa TR, National Park Service. Retrieved August 4, 2009.
- ^ a b c d e Waterman, p. 103.
- ^ Waterman, p. 104.
- ^ a b Waterman, p. 106
- ^ Shank, p. 66.
- ^ "Wapello County Courthouse (1892-93)". City of Ottumwa, Iowa. Retrieved 2009-08-04.
- ^ Waterman, p. 107.
References[edit]
- Shank, Wesley I (1999). Iowa's Historic Architects: A Biographical Dictionary. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press. ISBN 0877456518.
- Waterman, Harrison L. (supervising editor) (1914). History of Wapello County Iowa. Chicago: S. J. Clarke Publishing. OCLC 6782813.
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