The Iowa County Courthouse in

Marengo, Iowa Marengo is a city in and the county seat of Iowa County, Iowa, Iowa County, Iowa, United States. It has served as the county seat since August 1845, even though it was not incorporated until July 1859. The population was 2,435 in the 2020 United ...

, United States, was built in 1893. 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 1981 as a part of the County Courthouses in Iowa Thematic Resource. The courthouse is the fourth building the county has used for court functions and county administration.

History

Iowa County’s first courthouse was a one-room building constructed in 1847. The county board of supervisors decided the building was not sufficient and they had another building built and it was completed in 1851. It became too small within ten years and a third courthouse was built for $2,000. The present Richardsonian influenced

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 was built for $57,608.16. The county raised $50,000 for construction by auctioning off swampland, which it owned in Ida and

Cherokee The Cherokee (; , or ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, they were concentrated in their homelands, in towns along river valleys of what is now southwestern ...

counties. The building is constructed of Berea Sandstone and features a tower. It is capped with an

octagon In geometry, an octagon () 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, which alternates two types of edges. A truncated octagon, t is a ...

al top stage and a high, pointed roof. This type of treatment is not found in any other courthouse in

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

. with The Iowa County Courthouse was dedicated on December 20, 1893.

References

{{NRHP in Iowa County, Iowa Government buildings completed in 1893 Romanesque Revival architecture in Iowa Buildings and structures in Iowa County, Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Iowa County, Iowa Courthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa County courthouses in Iowa