The Beckham County Courthouse, located in Courthouse Square in Sayre, is the

county courthouse A courthouse or court house is a structure which houses judicial functions for a governmental entity such as a state, region, province, county, prefecture, regency, or similar governmental unit. A courthouse is home to one or more courtrooms, ...

of Beckham County,

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

. The courthouse is considered a local landmark because it is the tallest building in Sayre. It is also one of the few courthouses in Oklahoma that has a dome.

Description

The courthouse building was built in 1911, the courthouse was designed by the architecture firm of Layton, Smith & Hawk and constructed by Oklahoma Quarries & Construction Co. The courthouse sits on a parcel of land in downtown Sayre, at the intersection of Third and Walnut Streets. It is a three-story building measuring in the east-west direction and in the north-south direction. It is faced with tan bricks and stone. The east and west entrances to the courthouse each feature two Tuscan columns which span the second and third floors; the columns are flanked by brick

pilaster In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...

s. A dentillated

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...

and a brick

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/brea ...

encircle the building at its roof line. . Although the NRHP application did not list a particular style of architecture, another source claims that the building blends Neo-Classical and Second Renaissance Revival styles."Beckham County Courthouse." BlogOklahoma.us.
Accessed May 31, 2016. A large dome supported by twelve Doric columns rises from an octagonal base on the roof of the courthouse. A smaller dome, similarly styled and supported by twelve columns, rises from the top of the main dome. The large dome has flat panels for clocks facing four directions.

Culture

The courthouse appeared in the film ''

The Grapes of Wrath ''The Grapes of Wrath'' is an American realist novel written by John Steinbeck and published in 1939. The book won the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and it was cited prominently when Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize ...

'', a 1940 adaptation of the John Steinbeck novel. Families headed to California (such as the Joads of the film) passed through Sayre on

U.S. Route 66 U.S. Route 66 or U.S. Highway 66 (US 66 or Route 66) is one of the original highways in the United States Numbered Highway System. It was established on November 11, 1926, with road signs erected the following year. The high ...

, and many viewed the city as the start of the West. The courthouse was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

on August 23, 1984.

Notes

References

{{NRHP in Beckham County, Oklahoma Courthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Oklahoma Government buildings completed in 1911 Buildings and structures in Beckham County, Oklahoma County courthouses in Oklahoma 1911 establishments in Oklahoma National Register of Historic Places in Beckham County, Oklahoma