The Mineral County Courthouse, also known as the 1883 Esmeralda County Courthouse and the Old Mineral County Courthouse, is an historic county courthouse building located at 551 C Street in

Hawthorne Hawthorne often refers to the American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hawthorne may also refer to: Places Australia *Hawthorne, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane Canada * Hawthorne Village, Ontario, a suburb of Milton, Ontario United States * Hawt ...

Mineral County, Nevada Mineral County is a county located in the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2020 census, the population was 4,554, making it the fourth-least populous county in Nevada. Its county seat is Hawthorne. History Mineral County was carved out of Esm ...

. Built in 1883 as the Esmeralda County Courthouse, it served as such until 1907 when the county seat was moved to Goldfield. In 1911 when Mineral County was created, it became the first Mineral County Courthouse, and served until 1970, when a new courthouse was constructed. It is the only building in Nevada to have served as the courthouse of two different counties. On January 29, 1982 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 ...

. As of 2008 (photo), it was fenced off and in disrepair.

Description

On a residential street with other public structures close by, the Old Mineral County Courthouse is situated in a park-like setting. Furnished with a single-story

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 ...

and a composite roofline, it is a 2-story rectangular unreinforced brick building. The courthouse has an enormous

lawn A lawn is an area of soil-covered land planted with grasses and other durable plants such as clover which are maintained at a short height with a lawnmower (or sometimes grazing animals) and used for aesthetic and recreational purposes. L ...

and a number old Cottonwood trees which provide shade with the

Community Center Community centres, community centers, or community halls are public locations where members of a community tend to gather for group activities, social support, public information, and other purposes. They may sometimes be open for the whole co ...

next at hand. The Italianate-Building was decorated with braced sidewalls, vaguely arched window and door openings, and a bracketed cornice along the roofline. 4

elevations The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Vert ...

of the building are capped with the Central

gables Gables may refer to: * The plural of gable, portion of walls between the lines of sloping roofs * Ken Gables (1919-1960), Major League Baseball pitcher * Gables, Nebraska, an unincorporated community in the United States * Gables, New South Wales, ...

. An unusual accent is added to the structure by the entrance

porch A porch (from Old French ''porche'', from Latin ''porticus'' "colonnade", from ''porta'' "passage") is a room or gallery located in front of an entrance of a building. A porch is placed in front of the facade of a building it commands, and form ...

in a 5-sided semicircular shape with wooden columns, and
balustrade
in a pentagram design. The National Emergency Recovery Act of the 1930s added a concrete vault and removed the roof'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 ...

which the authority claimed to be too heavy for the building. Also, the workers changed the first wooden portico on the east with a concrete version of a moderately dissimilar style.

History and Context

The natives of the fledgling town had mounted a campaign to acquire county seat status less than 2 years after the infant community of

was founded as a station on the newly-constructed Carson & Colorado Railroad. The

Legislature A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its p ...

of the State accepted an act for removing the county seat of

Esmeralda County Esmeralda County is a county in the southwestern portion of the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2020 census, the population was 729, making it the least populous county in Nevada. Esmeralda County does not have any incorporated communities. Its ...

from

Aurora An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of bri ...

to Hawthorne. The Legislature also approved the bonds selling to collect funds for managing the cost of construction for a

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 ...

within a sum which will not exceed 30,000 dollars on 1st March 1883. The transfer of office was effective from July 01 of the same year. Officials of Esmeralda County permitted a construction contract for 29,125 USD in 1883 to George W. Babcock. The officials chose A.C. Glenn for supervising the construction of the courthouse. In the course of the process, Mr. Glenn was replaced by D.R. Munro. Differences occurred between authorized plans and the project in progress which created a controversy among the locals. The increased cost was 33,976 USD after the changes.

References

External links

Historic photo of old courthouse
Government buildings completed in 1883 Courthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Nevada Buildings and structures in Mineral County, Nevada County courthouses in Nevada Italianate architecture in Nevada National Register of Historic Places in Mineral County, Nevada {{Nevada-NRHP-stub

Description

History and Context

See also

References

External links