The Benton County Courthouse is a

courthouse A courthouse or court house is a structure which houses judicial functions for a governmental entity such as a state, region, province, county, prefecture, regency, or similar governmental unit. A courthouse is home to one or more courtrooms, ...

Bentonville, Arkansas Bentonville is a city in and the county seat of Benton County, Arkansas, United States. The city is centrally located in the county with Rogers, Arkansas, Rogers adjacent to the east. The city proper had a population of 54,164 at the 2020 Unite ...

, United States, the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

of Benton County, built in 1928. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1988. The courthouse was built in the Classic Revival style by Albert O. Clark and anchors the east side of the Bentonville Town Square.

History

Architect Albert O. Clark came from

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...

Rogers, Arkansas Rogers is a city in Benton County, Arkansas, United States. Located in the Ozarks, it is part of the Northwest Arkansas region, one of the fastest growing metro areas in the country. Rogers was the location of the first Walmart store, whose cor ...

in 1904. He utilized the Classic Revival style when designing the Applegate Drugstore and Bank of Rogers Building elsewhere in the county. Clark was hired to build many buildings in Bentonville, including the Benton County Jail and the county courthouse. His building replaced an

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style combined its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century It ...

style structure that had served the county administration needs since 1874. The very first courthouse at Benton was a

log building Log buildings and structures can be categorized as historic and modern. They are placed in opposition to wooden structures built using frameworks, according to Eugene Viollet-le-Duc. A diverse selection of their forms and styles with examples of ...

erected in 1837.

Architecture

Built in the Classic Revival (Neoclassical) style, the Benton County Courthouse features a totally symmetrical

façade A façade or facade (; ) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a loanword from the French language, French (), which means "frontage" or "face". In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important asp ...

with a centrally located entrance. The building also exhibits keystones, a main characteristic of Classic Revival architecture. The third floor originally included a balcony; however this was later enclosed to allow for climate control. Today the enclosed third floor windows have round-topped arches, a modification that was in keeping with 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 t ...

building style.

References

External links

{{National Register of Historic Places County courthouses in Arkansas Neoclassical architecture in Arkansas Government buildings completed in 1928 Courthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Arkansas 1928 establishments in Arkansas National Register of Historic Places in Bentonville, Arkansas

History

Architecture

See also

References

External links