The Des Moines County Court House located in

Burlington, Iowa Burlington is a city in, and the county seat of, Des Moines County, Iowa, United States. The population was 23,982 in the 2020 census, a decline from the 26,839 population in 2000. Burlington is the center of a micropolitan area, which includes ...

, United States, was built in 1940. It was 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 ...

in 2003 as a part of the PWA-Era County Courthouses of Iowa Multiple Properties Submission. The courthouse is the fourth structure to house court functions and county administration.

History

The first court sessions in the county were held in log cabins until the county leased Marion Hall. The county purchased Mozart Hall in 1866 which was destroyed in 1873 by a fire that also destroyed many of the county records it housed. County offices again occupied Marion Hall temporarily until 1882 when the new four-story courthouse, designed by Perley Hale, was completed at a cost of $130,000. The building was constructed of

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

from

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

and

brick A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...

and was topped with a

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, from ...

. Empty spaces between the ceiling and floor above were filled with concrete in an attempt to fireproof the structure. The county sold the building in 1940 after offices moved into the current courthouse. The county board of supervisors applied for and received a grant from the

Public Works Administration The Public Works Administration (PWA), part of the New Deal of 1933, was a large-scale public works construction agency in the United States headed by Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes. It was created by the National Industrial Recove ...

(PWA) in August 1938 to assist with funding for the new courthouse. Voters passed a bond referendum the following month and the board selected the

Des Moines Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines, ...

architectural firm of Keffer & Jones to design the building. Paul Steenberg Construction Co., of

St. Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (abbreviated St. Paul) is the capital of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County. Situated on high bluffs overlooking a bend in the Mississippi River, Saint Paul is a regional business hub and the center o ...

, submitted the winning construction bid in February 1939. Final construction costs totaled about $280,000. Construction began a short time after the bidding process, however, poor soil conditions and various labor problems slowed construction. With work nearly finished, county workers moved into the new courthouse in April 1940. The courtroom was dedicated by Justice Oscar Hale of the Iowa Supreme Court on April 6, 1940. A larger celebration was deferred because on the onset of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Architecture

The architectural style of the building is known as Depression Modern or

PWA Moderne The Art Deco style, which originated in France just before World War I, had an important impact on architecture and design in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s. The most famous examples are the skyscrapers of New York City including the Em ...

. The building features a symmetrical

façade A façade () (also written facade) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a Loanword, loan word from the French language, French (), which means 'frontage' or 'face'. In architecture, the façade of a building is often t ...

with a central section that protrudes slightly forward. with The exterior is composed of buff-colored brick and Bedford limestone trim. On the interior, a central corridor extends the length of each floor. Office spaces open onto the corridor and vaults occupy the corners of the structure to house records. The interior featured multi-colored

terrazzo Terrazzo is a composite material, poured in place or precast, which is used for floor and wall treatments. It consists of chips of marble, quartz, granite, glass, or other suitable material, poured with a cementitious binder (for chemical bindi ...

floors, marble

wainscoting Panelling (or paneling in the U.S.) is a millwork wall covering constructed from rigid or semi-rigid components. These are traditionally interlocking wood, but could be plastic or other materials. Panelling was developed in antiquity to make roo ...

and acoustic tile. Originally, the courtroom was decorated in dark wood tones and

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 ...

ornamentation. A single-story addition was added to the north side of the building in the 1970s. The building is located on a quarter block on the north side 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 ...

, overlooking the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

. The previous courthouse was located a half block to the south. The site itself is a

contributing site 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 ...

on the courthouse's nomination to the National Register of Historic Places. Also on the property is a flagpole and a brick and stone monument with a stone carving of the Sauk warrior

Black Hawk Black Hawk and Blackhawk may refer to: Animals * Black Hawk (horse), a Morgan horse that lived from 1833 to 1856 * Common black hawk, ''Buteogallus anthracinus'' * Cuban black hawk, ''Buteogallus gundlachii'' * Great black hawk, ''Buteogallus ur ...

whose namesake

treaty A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement between actors in international law. It is usually made by and between sovereign states, but can include international organizations An international organization or international o ...

opened this section of Iowa to Euro-American settlement in 1832. The carving was from the old courthouse that was found in storage in the 1960s. The monument was created in 1972. There is also a small freestanding building that is used for transporting county prisoners. It was built in 1997 after the jail was removed from the courthouse in 1997.

References

{{NRHP in Des Moines County, Iowa Government buildings completed in 1940 PWA Moderne architecture in Iowa Buildings and structures in Burlington, Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Des Moines County, Iowa Courthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa County courthouses in Iowa Public Works Administration in Iowa