The Cedar County Courthouse is located in

Tipton, Iowa Tipton ( /ˈtɪptən/) is a city in Cedar County, Iowa, United States. The population was 3,149 at the time of the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Cedar County. History Tipton was platted within Center Township in 1840 and was named for Ge ...

, United States. The present courthouse is the third structure the county has used for court functions and county administration.

History

Rochester Rochester may refer to: Places Australia * Rochester, Victoria Canada * Rochester, Alberta United Kingdom *Rochester, Kent ** City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area ** History of Rochester, Kent ** HM Prison ...

was Cedar County's first

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...

. The log building built there as a courthouse and jail may never have been used for court purposes. It was used, however, for school exhibitions, dances, and maybe as a jail. The county seat was moved to Tipton in 1841, but the frame courthouse building was not completed until 1845. It had been built on a square that had been set aside for a courthouse when the town was surveyed. The delay in construction may be attributed to the unusual funding scheme whereby the jail was funded first by the sale of town lots, and when that was paid, they would pay for the courthouse. The unfinished building was occupied by the county. After it was finished it had so much extra space that the second floor was rented to the local

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. It was replaced in 1859 with a brick courthouse that featured a tall

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome. The word derives, via Italian, fro ...

capped with a dome. It was extensively renovated and enlarged in 1889. The cupola was removed at that time, and a clock tower was added above the main entrance. The tower proved unsafe and it had to be removed in 1948. The present

Modern Modern may refer to: History * Modern history ** Early Modern period ** Late Modern period *** 18th century *** 19th century *** 20th century ** Contemporary history * Moderns, a faction of Freemasonry that existed in the 18th century Phil ...

-style brick courthouse was begun in 1965 and completed three years later for about $595,000.

References

Government buildings completed in 1968 Modernist architecture in Iowa County courthouses in Iowa Buildings and structures in Cedar County, Iowa Tipton, Iowa {{Iowa-struct-stub