St. Joseph County Courthouse
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S5280ft
N 41° 55.412 W 085° 31.662
16T E 622079 N 4642334
Not easy to miss on the south side of main street between Burg Wahl Klinger Lane/Covered Bridge Road and Dean Street. There's got to be a story about those street names. Parking is available.
Waymark Code: WM1MBB
Location: Michigan, United States
Date Posted: 05/31/2007
Views: 98
Michigan Territorial Governor George B. Porter proclaimed Centreville the St. Joseph County seat on November 22, 1831. On November 7, 1831, Robert Clark, Jr., Electra W. Dean, Charles Noble and Daniel B. Miller donated the public square and fifty-six additional lots to the county. The first courthouse, a Greek Revival structure with four large columns on its east portico, was built in the center of the square in 1842 by John Bryan. That building was removed in 1899, to make way for the present red brick and sandstone courthouse, whose construction began on September 8 of that year. Grand Rapids architect Sidney J. Osgood designed the Romanesque Revival structure, and Coldwater contractors Crookshank and Somers built it at a cost of $33,000.
(SIDE TWO) The present St. Joseph County courthouse was dedicated on August 1, 1900. Its Romanesque Revival design creates a commodious, well-lighted, solid building that echoes the justice and stability it represents. Marble floors, wide spacious stairs, ornately carved woodwork, frosted glass doors and three wall murals still grace the little-altered interior. The clock, whose faces are five and one-half feet in diameter, was purchased by the village of Centreville for $850 and placed in the seventy-five-foot tower prior to the completion of the courthouse. When the building became too small to accommodate all of the government offices, a new courts building was constructed on the south side of the public square. The courthouse, however, remains the seat of government.
Historical Date: 08/01/1900
Historical Name: George B. Porter, Robert Clark, Jr., Electra W. Dean, Charles Noble and Daniel B. Miller, John Bryan, Sidney J. Osgood
Parking nearby?: yes
D/T ratings: 
website: [Web Link]
Registered Site #: Local Site #1150
Description: Not listed
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