Alpena County Courthouses is a historic

courthouse A courthouse or court house is a building that is home to a local court of law and often the regional county government as well, although this is not the case in some larger cities. The term is common in North America. In most other English-spe ...

in Alpena,

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

. It houses the circuit court and

county clerk A clerk is a white-collar worker who conducts general office tasks, or a worker who performs similar sales-related tasks in a retail environment. The responsibilities of clerical workers commonly include record keeping, filing, staffing service ...

, while district court and

probate court A probate court (sometimes called a surrogate court) is a court that has competence in a jurisdiction to deal with matters of probate and the Administration of an estate on death, administration of estates. In some jurisdictions, such courts ma ...

are housed across the street in the County Annex Building.

History

The first courthouse in Alpena County was located at 150 East Chisholm Street, now the site of the

I.O.O.F. Centennial Building The I.O.O.F. Centennial Building is an historic building located at 150 East Chisholm Street in Alpena, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015.

. The building was destroyed by a fire on December 12, 1870, and a replacement was built in 1881 at 720 W Chisholm Street. It met a similar fate on November 22, 1932. "The Alpena News" dated November 23, 1932 Alpena County Courthouse clock detail - Alpena Michigan

Alpena County Courthouse clock detail - Alpena Michigan

The current courthouse opened October 21, 1934. The building was designed by architect William H. Kuni of

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

and built by the Henry C. Webber Construction Co. of locally produced poured

Portland cement Portland cement is the most common type of cement in general use around the world as a basic ingredient of concrete, mortar, stucco, and non-specialty grout. It was developed from other types of hydraulic lime in England in the early 19th c ...

made from locally quarried

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

. According to Kuni, it was the first monolithic poured building constructed during the winter in a cold climate. Kuni also designed the Tuscola County Courthouse. It was financed partly by local bonds and

WPA WPA may refer to: Computing *Wi-Fi Protected Access, a wireless encryption standard *Windows Product Activation, in Microsoft software licensing * Wireless Public Alerting (Alert Ready), emergency alerts over LTE in Canada * Windows Performance An ...

grants. The

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

building, dubbed "Fort Alpena" by a local writer, is embellished by

architectural sculpture Architectural sculpture is the use of sculptural techniques by an architect and/or sculptor in the design of a building, bridge, mausoleum or other such project. The sculpture is usually integrated with the structure, but freestanding works that a ...

, including an eagle perched atop the clock on the main facade and figures of ''Justice'' and ''Law'' as well as "fascia designs show(ing) images of the county's lumbering, shipbuilding, farming, fishing and recreational industries." On December 8, 1983, it was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

, item # 83003643. It is a state registered historic site. The Alpena County Annex houses the district and probate courts. It is located at 719 Chisholm Avenue and opened in 1997.

References

External links

* 1934 establishments in Michigan Art Deco architecture in Michigan Art Deco courthouses Clock towers in Michigan County courthouses in Michigan Courthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan Government buildings completed in 1934 Michigan State Historic Sites National Register of Historic Places in Alpena County, Michigan {{Michigan-NRHP-stub