The Montgomery County Courthouse is located in

Red Oak, Iowa Red Oak is a city in, and the county seat of, Montgomery County, Iowa, Montgomery County, Iowa, United States, located along the Nishnabotna River, East Nishnabotna River. The population was 5,362 in the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, a d ...

, United States. 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 2016 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

Red Oak Downtown Historic District The Red Oak Downtown Historic District is a nationally recognized historic district located in Red Oak, Iowa, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016. At the time of its nomination it contained 104 reso ...

. The courthouse is the third building the county has used for court functions and county administration.

History

Montgomery County's 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 Frankfort and the courthouse there was a room in a log cabin. The dining room set of the cabin's occupants was used for the furniture and the jury deliberated outside. It was replaced by a two-story building that was built for $1,000. The building measured . An election was held in 1863 that moved the county seat to Red Oak, but confusion of some sort ensued. The voters had to be canvassed so the decision could be confirmed, which was accomplished in June 1864. When the county seat was moved to Red Oak the courthouse was put on sleds and thirty

yoke A yoke is a wooden beam sometimes used between a pair of oxen or other animals to enable them to pull together on a load when working in pairs, as oxen usually do; some yokes are fitted to individual animals. There are several types of yoke, us ...

of oxen pulled it through a blizzard. Because of the storm's intensity, the team was moved off course and the oxen were unhitched, allowing the courthouse to "wander" on its own. It was located on a homestead northeast of Red Oak and guided to its new site on one of the town squares. Several efforts to replace the old courthouse failed. After the decision to replace it passed, an

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest city ...

contractor failed to satisfy the contract and left the building uncompleted with numerous unpaid bills. The courts ruled that the county was not liable for the contractor's debts, and the county acquired much of the construction materials without charge. 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 ...

for the present courthouse was laid on July 4, 1890, and construction was completed a year later. 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 building was built at a cost of $100,000. The

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...

architectural firm H.C. Koch & Company designed the building, and it was built by Richard & Company.

Architecture

The 3½-story structure was built on a raised basement. The lower levels are composed on rusticated

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 ...

, while the upper levels are brick. The exterior of the building features an abundance of towers,

turret Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Objective turret, an indexable holder of multiple lenses in an optical microscope * Mi ...

finial A finial (from '' la, finis'', end) or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a d ...

s, cresting, and a large polygonal bay. 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 ...

is located on the peak of the

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, ...

. The tall clock tower with its steeply peaked roof adds to the vericality of the building. It is considered one of the best Victorian Romanesque courthouses in

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

. with The significance of the courthouse is derived from its association with county government, and the political power and prestige of Red Oak as the county seat.

References

External links

{{NRHP in Montgomery County, Iowa Government buildings completed in 1891 Romanesque Revival architecture in Iowa Buildings and structures in Montgomery County, Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Montgomery County, Iowa Courthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa County courthouses in Iowa Clock towers in Iowa Red Oak, Iowa Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in Iowa