The Kingman County Courthouse, located at 130 Spruce Street in
Kingman, Kansas, is an historic 3-story
redbrick
A red brick university (or redbrick university) was originally one of the nine civic universities founded in the major industrial cities of England in the 19th century.
However, with the 1960s proliferation of plate glass universities and t ...
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 ...
building set on a ground-floor basement of rough-faced white
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 ...
. The stairway and entrance
portico
A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...
leading to the main entrance are of the same limestone. Its roof is basically
hipped with
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 in the middle of each side,
pyramid
A pyramid (from el, πυραμίς ') is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single step at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilat ...
s on each corner and an
octagon
In geometry, an octagon (from the Greek ὀκτάγωνον ''oktágōnon'', "eight angles") is an eight-sided polygon or 8-gon.
A '' regular octagon'' has Schläfli symbol and can also be constructed as a quasiregular truncated square, t, whi ...
al shaped
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 ...
rising from the center. Built in 1907-08 for
Kingman County
Kingman County (standard abbreviation: KM) is a county located in the U.S. state of Kansas. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the county population was 7,470. The largest city and county seat is Kingman, Kansas, Kingman.
History ...
, it is one of 15 courthouses (13 in Kansas and one each in
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...
and
Oklahoma
Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...
) designed by architect
George P. Washburn
George Putnam Washburn (March 21, 1846 – May 16, 1922) was a prominent architect practicing in Kansas. Washburn came to Kansas in 1870, worked as a carpenter and architect, and in 1882 opened an architecture practice in Ottawa, Kansas. His son ...
of
Ottawa, Kansas
Ottawa (pronounced ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Franklin County, Kansas, United States. It is located on both banks of the Marais des Cygnes River near the center of Franklin County. As of the 2020 census, the population of the c ...
. His design for this building has been called a mixture of
Late Victorian,
Romanesque,
Free Classical and
Queen Anne architectural styles.
Noted Kansans biography of George P. Washburn
/ref>
On September 11, 1985, the Kingman County Courthouse 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 ...
.
References
Buildings and structures in Kingman County, Kansas
County courthouses in Kansas
Government buildings completed in 1908
Courthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Kansas
National Register of Historic Places in Kingman County, Kansas
1908 establishments in Kansas
{{Kansas-NRHP-stub