The Lee County Courthouse is located in

Fort Madison, Iowa Fort Madison is a city in and a county seat of Lee County, Iowa, United States along with Keokuk. Of Iowa's 99 counties, Lee County is the only one with two county seats. The population was 10,270 at the time of the 2020 census. Located alon ...

, United States. The courthouse serves the court functions and county administration for the northern part of Lee County, and it is the county's first courthouse. 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 1976 as a part of the County Courthouses in Iowa Thematic Resource. In 2014, 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 dist ...

in the

Park-to-Park Residential Historic District The Park-to-Park Residential Historic District in Fort Madison, Iowa, United States, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014. The historic district is located to the north of the Downtown Commercial Historic District, ge ...

. Southern Lee County is served from a courthouse in Keokuk in the former Federal Courthouse building.

History

Construction began on the courthouse in 1841. The courthouse and the jail were completed the following year for about $12,000. The basement walls are constructed of stone and the upper walls are faced in brick. Four large

Tuscan column The Tuscan order (Latin ''Ordo Tuscanicus'' or ''Ordo Tuscanus'', with the meaning of Etruscan order) is one of the two classical orders developed by the Romans, the other being the composite order. It is influenced by the Doric order, but wit ...

s hold up the porch roof on the

Greek Revival Greek Revival architecture is a architectural style, style that began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe, the United States, and Canada, ...

style building. After it was completed the seat of county government moved to

West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as Officer_(armed_forces)#United_States, comm ...

. From 1843 to 1845 the Fort Madison courthouse was rented out. County voters chose Fort Madison as the county seat in an election in 1845, and the courthouse has been used for county business since that time. with The

Iowa General Assembly The Iowa General Assembly is the legislative branch of the state government of Iowa. Like the federal United States Congress, the General Assembly is a bicameral body, composed of the upper house Iowa Senate and the lower Iowa House of Repre ...

established Keokuk as the second

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 ...

in 1848, making Lee County the only Iowa county that has more than one courthouse. The

Sullivan Line The Sullivan Line originally marked in 1816 forms three quarters of the border between Missouri and Iowa and an extension of it forms the remainder. The line was initially created to establish the limits of Native American territory (they wo ...

was used to divide the county into northern and southern sections. The Fort Madison courthouse was extensively remodeled in 1876 and included the construction of a

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, usually dome-like structure on top of a building often crowning a larger roof or dome. Cupolas often serve as a roof lantern to admit light and air or as a lookout. The word derives, via Ital ...

that was part of the building's original designs. It was lost in a fire in 1911, and not replaced when the building was renovated. Two additions were built onto the rear of the courthouse, probably during the above-mentioned renovations.

References

External links

{{Lee County NRHP Government buildings completed in 1842 Greek Revival architecture in Iowa Buildings and structures in Lee County, Iowa County courthouses in Iowa Courthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Lee County, Iowa Buildings and structures in Fort Madison, Iowa Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in Iowa 1842 establishments in Iowa Territory