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Jefferson County Courthouse

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1891–1893, H. C. Koch and Company. Briggs St. between Main and Court streets
  • Jefferson County Courthouse (David Gebhard and Gerald Mansheim)

A courthouse was built in 1839, at the time Fairfield was established as the county seat. By tradition this structure has been considered to be the first wood-frame building in the state. This first courthouse was replaced by a stone-and-brick building that was finished in 1851. The Milwaukee architect H. C. Koch, who designed a number of courthouses in Iowa, Wisconsin, and Kansas, provided an up-to-date version of the Richardsonian Romanesque. The architect countered the verticality of his design by providing a light-colored sandstone base that is carried through the first floor of the building; above this the walls are sheathed in dark red Saint Louis pressed brick. The design originally centered on a corner clock tower which was 142 feet high, but the top of the tower was removed in 1948.

Writing Credits

Author: 
David Gebhard and Gerald Mansheim
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Data

What's Nearby

McElhinney House
Jefferson County Public Library
Beck House
Clarke House
House

Citation

David Gebhard and Gerald Mansheim, "Jefferson County Courthouse", [Fairfield, Iowa], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/IA-01-SO062.

Print Source

Buildings of Iowa, David Gebhard and Gerald Mansheim. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993, 324-324.

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