The Clarke County Courthouse is located in

Osceola, Iowa Osceola is a city in Clarke County, Iowa, Clarke County, Iowa, United States. The population was 5,160 at the time of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. It is the county seat of Clarke County. History Osceola was named after a Seminol ...

, United States. It is the third building used for court functions and county administration in

Clarke County Clarke County may refer to: ;Places *One of five counties in the United States: **Clarke County, Alabama **Clarke County, Georgia **Clarke County, Iowa **Clarke County, Mississippi **Clarke County, Virginia * Clarke County, New South Wales, in Aust ...

History

On August 8, 1851, three commissioners choose the site that would become Osceola as the

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 ...

. They purchased the land from George W. How for $100. The first courthouse was a two-story frame building that occupied a corner lot. It was built for $1,600. It had to be abandoned in 1883 because the toll that wind and weather had taken on the structure. It was replaced by a 2½-story brick structure in 1892 that was built on the public square, which up to that point had been a park. The

Romanesque Revival Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended to ...

building featured a tall clock tower. The county outgrew that building and 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 ...

structure was completed in 1956. A $275,000 bond had been issued for its construction. The structure is composed of a single story section and a two-story section. It is located on the same expansive square in the middle of the

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...

as the former courthouse. In 2018 the building and the square were included as

contributing properties In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distric ...

in the

Osceola Commercial Historic District The Osceola Commercial Historic District is a nationally recognized Historic districts in the United States, historic district located in Osceola, Iowa, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2018. At the tim ...

listed on 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 ...

References

Government buildings completed in 1956 Modernist architecture in Iowa County courthouses in Iowa Buildings and structures in Clarke County, Iowa Osceola, Iowa Courthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Clarke County, Iowa Historic district contributing properties in Iowa {{Iowa-struct-stub