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 Franklin County Courthouse - Ottawa, Kansas Posted by:  iconions
N 38° 36.807 W 095° 16.090
15S E 302519 N 4276322
Franklin County Courthouse is a Romanesque three-story red brick building located at 315 South Main Street in Ottawa, Kansas.
Waymark Code: WMY9AK
Location: Kansas, United States
Date Posted: 05/14/2018
Views: 0
The Franklin County Courthouse, located in Courthouse Square on Main Street in Ottawa, is the seat of government of Franklin County, Kansas. The courthouse was built from 1892 to 1892; while Ottawa had been the county seat since 1864, it lacked a permanent courthouse prior to then. Architect George P. Washburn designed the courthouse in the Romanesque Revival style; the red brick courthouse is considered one of Washburn's "most outstanding works". The design features four square corner towers, a typical feature of Washburn's designs; two cupolas on the roof include a bell tower and a clock tower. The intricate roof design includes a main hipped roof with gable ends on each side and steep hipped roofs atop the towers. The roof line is ridged with a metal spine, and a dentillated cornice runs beneath the roof's edge. The east and west entrances to the courthouse are through large porches supported by brick columns and topped with balconies. The second-story windows are arched and connected by a band of stone.
The courthouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 17, 1972.
- Douglas County Courthouse Wikipedia page
The Franklin County Courthouse, located at Ottawa, is a rectangular Romanesque-influenced structure with entrances on the east and west sides. The building is three stories in height and has a full basement. The basement foundation walls, which are constructed of rough-hewn limestone blocks laid in regular horizontal courses, terminate at the first floor line in a projecting limestone belt course. Red face brick is the principal building material used for wall construction on the three stories above the stone belt line. The roof form is very complex but is basically a steep pitched hip roof with intersecting gables at the center of each of the four sides. A steeply pitched hip roof is used over each of the four corner towers. Two cupolas are located at the ends of the main hip roof. The west cupola contains a four-sided clock while the east cupola is an open four-sided bell tower. A decorative metal spine is used on all roof ridges.
The roof cornice and gable overhangs are ornamented by dentils with a similar decoration on the tower. Each of the tower roofs as well as the two cupolas terminates in a decorative metal spire. A silvered statue stands on the apex of the gable over the west entrance. In addition to the roof features and the corner towers, the building has large entrance porches at the east and west facades. The porch roofs, which are supported by large brick pillars with stone bases, capitals and intermediate bands, are balconies for the second floor. First floor windows are simple rectangular openings with stone sills and lintels. The stone of the lintels is extended continuously around the building to form a band. The same is true for the sills of the second story windows. Second story windows are capped with large semicircular stone arches, which interconnect to provide a continuous stone band.
- National Register Application
Public/Private: Public
Tours Available?: no
Year Built: 1893
Web Address: Not listed
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