Livingston County Courthouse
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S5280ft
N 42° 36.427 W 083° 55.654
17T E 259855 N 4721342
Located half a block east of Michigan Avenue and Grand River Avenue.
Waymark Code: WM3PPP
Location: Michigan, United States
Date Posted: 04/30/2008
Views: 12
From the State of Michigan Historic Sites on-line (
visit link) :
Narrative Description: The Livingston County Courthouse is a rectangular two-and-one-half-story Richardsonian Romanesque courthouse with walls of red brick and an exposed half-basement of rough-cut Ohio bluestone ashlar. The building numbers five-bays wide on two sides and three bays wide on the other two. A four-sided clock tower topped by a steeply pitched roof dominates the shingled, multi-gable, hipped-roof that is broken by dormers and parapets on each side. Decorative elements include bluestone beltcourses, lintels, window hoods, and arched entryways. Rich oak, maple, and murals ornament the interior.
Statement of Significance: The Livingston County Courthouse is architecturally significant as an example of successful building rehabilitation and as a representative of increasingly rare late-nineteenth-century courthouse architecture. The building, designed by Albert E. French of Detroit, replaced an older Greek Revival structure and was completed by Waterbury and Wright of Ionia in 1890. Pressure from a growing population demanded larger facilities and resulted in a successful campaign to restore and rehabilitate the courthouse by the Friends of the Livingston County Courthouse between 1975 and 1978. The courthouse still serves its original function and has become a cultural landmark for the county.