The Marshall County Courthouse is located in

Marshalltown, Iowa Marshalltown is a city in and the county seat of Marshall County, Iowa, United States, located along the Iowa River. It is the seat and most populous settlement of Marshall County and the 16th largest city in Iowa, with a population of 27,591 at ...

, United States. The current building was completed in 1886 to replace an earlier building. The courthouse is a dominant landmark in downtown Marshalltown. 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 1972. In 2002 it was listed 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 Marshalltown Downtown Historic District. It is the third building the county has used for a courthouse and county business.

History

Initially, county business was carried out in the homes of county officials. The 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 ...

was Marietta, located a few miles northwest of Marshalltown, and the first courthouse was built there. with The single-story frame structure measured . It was sold for $175 when the county seat moved to Marshalltown. The citizens of Marshall, as the town was then called, wanted the county seat moved there so they had a courthouse built free of charge. The two-story brick building with a stone foundation measured , and was built by hundreds of people from the community. It was built facing the town square on its east side in 1858 and opened in 1860. County offices were on the first floor and the courtroom was on the second floor. By the mid-1870s it was in disrepair. Voters, however, rejected initial attempts to replace it. In 1881 citizens of Marshall County voted for a $100,000 courthouse to be built on the public square in Marshalltown deeded by Henry Anson.

David Wood Townsend David Wood Townsend (July 18, 1844 – March 8, 1912) was an American builder. Townsend was a business owner and builder in Western Iowa. Starting out representing Knapp, Stout & Co. Lumber, he later owned and operated several Townsend Bros. Lum ...

contracted and oversaw the building of the new courthouse. The

cornerstone The cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure. Over time ...

of the new building was laid in 1884 and the new courthouse was dedicated in 1886. The building was designed by John C. Cochrane, whose firm had designed the State Capitol Building in

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, ...

. The courthouse was constructed using native

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 ...

over brick. On November 21, 1972, the building had been placed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1973 the State Fire Marshall ordered the building repaired or removed. The Courthouse had been well maintained until the market crash of 1929. During the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

and war years, taxpayers could not afford to pay for needed repairs, so the building began to deteriorate. The Friends of the Courthouse Committee, a newly formed organization, decided to save the building. A referendum was held and it was decided to restore the courthouse. In 1974 voters approved a $3.2 million bond issue to pay for the renovation. The renovated Courthouse was rededicated on November 19, 1978. The courthouse was damaged in a tornado on July 19, 2018, which ripped the

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires are ...

from the top of the building's

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 ...

. The building also suffered water damage because of the storm. Initial repair costs of $15.5 million were raised to $30 million by June 2019. The increased costs include improvements to the building beyond the insurance-funded repairs. The dome was removed on May 13, 2019, for repairs and it was replaced by a temporary roof. On March 31, 2020, a new dome was lifted into place.

Architecture

The 2½-story

structure is built on the raised basement of rusticated stone. The center pavilion projects from the main facade and extends beyond the roofline with three statues at the top. A

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 ...

with four columns rises to a balcony at the second story on the north elevation.

Pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedimen ...

ed wall

dormer A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window. Dormers are commonly used to increase the usable space ...

s surround the building at the roofline. A

hip 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, ...

caps the structure. In the center is a high square limestone tower with a clock, dome, and small

at the top. It rises to a height to . The interior features a rotunda with a dome, columns,

terrazo ''Terrazo'' is a book written in 1947 by Puerto Rican writer Abelardo Diaz Alfaro. The book won many awards, including that of the Sociedad de Periodistas Universitario y Instituto de Literatura Puertorriqueña, and made it to the national libra ...

floors, and carved woodwork. The courthouse is located in the center of the town square.

References

{{NRHP in Marshall County, Iowa Government buildings completed in 1886 Neoclassical architecture in Iowa County courthouses in Iowa Buildings and structures in Marshalltown, Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Marshall County, Iowa Courthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa Limestone buildings in the United States Clock towers in Iowa Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in Iowa