County of courthouse: Adair County
Location of courthouse: Harrison St. & Franklin St., Kirksville
Built: 1899
Architect: Kirsch's Company, Milwaukee, WI
Architectural Style: Richardsonian Romanesque
Old Photo: 1910
New Photo: 2006
"The Adair County Courthouse is significant as a regionally important example
of Romanesque-Style Architecture, and as the seat of county government since
its completion in 1899.
" ... Thereupon, the
county court, after considering a number of plans, hired Kirsch'S Company, an
architectural firm with headquarters in Milwaukee. Wisconsin, to design the
three-story (including a high basement) building.
"Architect Robert G. Kirsch, who later designed the courthouses in the Missouri
counties of Carroll (1901), Polk (1906), Vernon (1906), and Cooper (1912),
was greatly influenced by the (H.H.) Richardsonian Romanesque style of
architecture "with its broad arches, squat column clusters, roughfaced stone
masonry, and massed hip roofs.""3 Kirsch personally supervised the construction
of the massive rectangular structure of "light blue (Ohio) sandstone"4 with its
ornate clock tower, surmounted by a female figure depicting even-handed justice,
which projected from the center of the building. This tower was 'removed in
1949, because its weight was thought to be endangering the main structure, and
the figure of justice moved to the center point of the roof. One of the clock
dials is in the Adair County Historical Society museum and the bell from which
the hours and half hours pealed out is now in the Burdman Bell Wall on the
Northeast Missouri State University campus.
"For almost seventy-eight years, the courthouse has contained most of the
county offices as well as the offices of some officials not part of the county
government. The only county officials with quarters outside the courthouse
today are the prosecuting attorney, the public administrator, and the sheriff. ...
"The south facade of the courthouse has always been considered its front.
There, the stone (now concrete) steps leading to the entranceway, were used for
many years by the sheriffs for foreclosure sales, political orators when a
crowd could be assembled on the nearby lawn,photographers for taking group
pictures, and patriotic organizations for programs on Armistice Day and Memorial Day. Occasionally, a young man would drive his automobile up the steps
to demonstrate his skill and the superior quality of his machine, a performance that ceased when a central iron handrail was installed." ~ NRHP Nomination Form