The Pierce City Fire Station, Courthouse and Jail is a two-story brick building located on Walnut Street near downtown Pierce City, in Lawrence County, Missouri. The building is in its original location, a city lot roughly the size of the building, and is closely flanked on either side by the circa 1899 United Methodist Church and a new masonic lodge. This 1886 Italianate property is a forerunner of the modern multipurpose facility, serving the community as a fire station, courthouse, jail, and city hall, and has always been used for governmental purposes. The two-story flat roofed building has a number of Italianate features, including a distinctive square, hipped roof belltower, tall vertically oriented windows topped by rectangular topped hoods and tall double entry doors/ The building has had no additions or major alterations, and most of the historic fabric of the building remains. Lack of maintenance over the years necessitated a stabilization effort following the building's acquisition by the State of Missouri during 1993-1997. The building's exterior retains a high degree of integrity of location, design, setting, workmanship, materials, feeling and association, making it eligible for listing on the National Register of
Historic Places...
The fire station is eligible under Politics/Government due to its construction and use as an early forerunner of the modern multi-purpose public facility, housing three distinct governmental functions: fire station, courthouse/city hall, and jail. Under the area of Ethnic Heritage - Black, the building was the focal point of a race riot August 18-20,1901, which received national attention and which served at least partially as the inspiration for an essay by Mark Twain, "The United States of Lyncherdom." The building is eligible for listing under Architecture as an elegant, though restrained, example of the Italianate style applied to a public building. The building was designed to accommodate three distinct governmental uses and is simply embellished with Italianate details and rendered in a scale comparable to other commercial buildings in the Lawrence County community. The building's exterior retains a high degree of integrity of location, design, setting, workmanship, materials, feeling and association.
The building appears to be in poor to fair condition however it appears that restoration work is underway.