The Hardin County Courthouse, located in

Eldora, Iowa Eldora is a city in Hardin County, Iowa, United States. The population was 2,663 at the time of the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Hardin County. History Eldora was platted in 1853. It was incorporated on July 1, 1895. The name Eldora was ...

, United States, was built in 1892. The courthouse is the third building to house court functions and county administration. It was individually 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 1981. In 2010 it was included as a

contributing property 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 distri ...

in the

Eldora Downtown Historic District The Eldora Downtown Historic District is a nationally recognized historic district located in Eldora, Iowa, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009. At the time of its nomination the district consisted ...

History

The first courthouse in Hardin County was a two-story frame structure built in 1856. It was destroyed in a fire in October of the same year and a new courthouse replaced it the following year. The current courthouse opened in 1892 at a cost of $48,000. In 1921, the roof and tower were damaged by a fire which spread from the adjacent Wisner Opera House. In 1967, the state fire marshall declared the structure unsafe. The following year, voters approved a bond sale to fund repairs. Work included replacing electrical, mechanical systems and windows; filling-in the central rotunda; replacing wood beams and floors with concrete and steel and installing an elevator. County workers vacated the building in July 1969 and returned to the renewed facility in October 1970. The final cost ran to $422,000, supplemented by private donations for landscaping.

Architecture

T.D. Allen, architect of the courthouses in Dickinson and

Franklin Franklin may refer to: People * Franklin (given name) * Franklin (surname) * Franklin (class), a member of a historical English social class Places Australia * Franklin, Tasmania, a township * Division of Franklin, federal electoral d ...

counties, designed Hardin's courthouse in 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 ...

style with elements of other styles. The exterior of the building is faced with St. Louis pressed brick and rests on a raised ground story covered in rusticated pink

Kasota stone Kasota limestone or simply, Kasota stone, also called Mankato stone, is a dolomitic limestone found in southern Minnesota, especially near the Minnesota River and its tributaries. This sedimentary rock is part of the Oneota Dolomite of southern ...

. A checkerboard pattern of brick and rusticated stone adorns the area just above the main entrance and the

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 ...

s of the east and west

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

s. The same stone frames the windows in modified

Gibbs surround A Gibbs surround or Gibbs Surround is a type of architectural frame surrounding a door, window or niche in the tradition of classical architecture otherwise known as a rusticated doorway or window. The formula is not fixed, but several of the ...

s. Characteristic Richardsonian arches, supported by red

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

columns, frame the north and south entrances. However, the corner turrets,

hipped roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...

, cross gables, and hewn stone trim are more typical of the Queen Anne style. The building's bell tower is reminiscent of those in Italian town centers. Statues of Justice, Mercy and Liberty occupy the alcove beneath the bell tower. The semi-circular transoms on the middle east and west windows feature the seal of the State of Iowa in

frosted glass Frosted glass is produced by the sandblasting or acid etching of clear sheet glass. This creates a pitted surface on one side of the glass pane and has the effect of rendering the glass translucent by scattering the light which passes through ...

. The significance of the courthouse is derived from its association with county government, and the political power and prestige of Eldora 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 ...

. with

References

{{NRHP in Hardin County, Iowa Government buildings completed in 1892 Eldora, Iowa Romanesque Revival architecture in Iowa Buildings and structures in Hardin County, Iowa Courthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa County courthouses in Iowa Clock towers in Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Hardin County, Iowa Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in Iowa