As with a number of other Iowa communities, Osceola was founded as the county seat. The town was laid out in 1851, in the center of Clarke County, and situated in a high, rolling prairie. Though the Clarke County Courthouse (1884) is now gone (replaced by a modernist building in 1955–1956), the east side of Main Street facing the courthouse square still possesses a number of nineteenth-century commercial buildings.
Writing Credits
If SAH Archipedia has been useful to you, please consider supporting it.
SAH Archipedia tells the story of the United States through its buildings, landscapes, and cities. This freely available resource empowers the public with authoritative knowledge that deepens their understanding and appreciation of the built environment. But the Society of Architectural Historians, which created SAH Archipedia with University of Virginia Press, needs your support to maintain the high-caliber research, writing, photography, cartography, editing, design, and programming that make SAH Archipedia a trusted online resource available to all who value the history of place, heritage tourism, and learning.