Crawford County Courthouse - Denison, Iowa
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N 42° 01.029 W 095° 21.401
15T E 304871 N 4654367
The Crawford County Courthouse is located at 1202 Broadway in Denison, Ia.
Waymark Code: WMDFMQ
Location: Iowa, United States
Date Posted: 01/09/2012
Views: 4
From Iowa Judical Branch website:
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A Baptist minister named J. W. Denison owned 200,000 acres of land and offered to donated the first courthouse if the judge would name the site as the county seat. The offer was accepted and the site was called Denison. The first courthouse was constructed from clay and completed in 1859. Sometime between 1871 and 1873 a frame addition was added to the courthouse to double its former size. Apparently, the addition was unsightly and became popularly known as the "wart". Another addition was added in 1881.
In 1904, a new courthouse was completed for approximately $115,000. This building serves as today's courthouse. The exterior of this courthouse is made of Ohio marble. Some of the blocks weigh as much as seven tons.
From Iowa Courthouse blog:
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Crawford County was established in 1851, and Denison (named for founder and landowner J. W. Denison), was designated as its county seat. The first courthouse was constructed of brick in 1859, but the growing county quickly outgrew the building. Crawford County’s second courthouse was designed in Beaux Arts style by George A. Berlinghof, with construction beginning in 1903. Ohio marble, Port Wing sandstone, and Bedford white stone are all listed as materials used in the construction of Crawford County’s current courthouse. The original design included a dome, which was removed in 1946 for safety reasons. The Crawford County courthouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1981.