Douglas County Courthouse - Ava, Mo. - Art Deco - Art Nouveau on Waymarking.com

A schoolhouse provided space for the courts to meet until a two-story, 40-by-70-foot, clapboard building with hip roof was built in 1888 on the square. This courthouse continued in use until 1937 when it was sold for $350.

Government talk of possibly funding about 50 percent of construction costs for a new courthouse prompted the Douglas County Planning Commission to assess needs. Their existing courthouse was a fire hazard and structurally weak; the building swayed, and doors could not be closed because of sagging timbers. The court hired Dan R. Sanford, who had experience with similar projects and government grants. The planning board recommended that the old site be turned over to the city and used as a park. Public opinion was divided, but the decision was made to move from the original square.

In September 1935 citizens voted a $50,000 bond issue, to be supplemented by a government grant of $33,545. Specifications that Sanford submitted included a $3,000 sum for purchase of a new site. The 185-foot square was too small to accommodate the new building. Then, too, a highway had been routed through the center of town in 1923; the noise from increased automobile traffic interfered with court business. An open central square in a county seat is rarely found in Missouri.

Contracts for building the new courthouse were awarded in December 1935 to Week's Construction Company, Kansas City. The red brick building is trimmed with "cast" stone, made with Carthage stone chips, crushed, mixed with cement, cast into blocks and polished to give the appearance of quarried stone. Work began in March 1936, and county officials moved into the completed building in January 1937.