The Pennington County Courthouse, located at 315 St. Joseph Street in

Rapid City Rapid City is the county seat of Pennington County, South Dakota, United States. It is located on the eastern slope of the Black Hills in western South Dakota and was named after Rapid Creek, where the settlement developed. It is the second-mo ...

, 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, ...

serving Pennington County,

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state, state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Dakota people, Dakota Sioux ...

. The courthouse has functioned as the seat of Pennington County government since it was built in 1922. Architecture firm W. E. Hulse & Company of

Hutchinson, Kansas Hutchinson is the largest city in and the county seat of Reno County, Kansas, Reno County, Kansas, United States. The city is located on the Arkansas River. It has been home to salt mines since 1887 (thus its nickname of "Salt City") but locals ...

designed the building in the Beaux-Arts style. The three-story building is built from Indiana limestone and has

terra cotta Terracotta, also known as terra cotta or terra-cotta (; ; ), is a clay-based Vitrification#Ceramics, non-vitreous ceramicOED, "Terracotta""Terracotta" MFA Boston, "Cameo" database fired at relatively low temperatures. It is therefore a term used ...

trim. The two-story front entrance is divided into sections by four pairs of

Ionic column The Ionic order is one of the three canonic orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric and the Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan (a plainer Doric), and the rich variant of Corinthian called the composite o ...

s; three large arched windows decorated with

muntin A muntin (US), muntin bar, glazing bar (UK), or sash bar is a strip of wood or metal separating and holding panes of glass in a window. Muntins can be found in doors, windows, and furniture, typically in Western styles of architecture. Muntins ...

and topped by keystones decorate the three main sections. The entrance, located at what would be the bottom of the middle window, features iron grilles on its windows and transom and is topped by a

cartouche upalt=A stone face carved with coloured hieroglyphics. Two cartouches - ovoid shapes with hieroglyphics inside - are visible at the bottom., Birth and throne cartouches of Pharaoh KV17.html" ;"title="Seti I, from KV17">Seti I, from KV17 at the ...

. A

frieze In classical architecture, the frieze is the wide central section of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic order, Ionic or Corinthian order, Corinthian orders, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Patera (architecture), Paterae are also ...

with ornamental medallions and a

dentil A dentil (from Lat. ''dens'', a tooth) is a small block used as a repeating ornament in the bedmould of a cornice. Dentils are found in ancient Greek and Roman architecture, and also in later styles such as Neoclassical, Federal, Georgian Rev ...

lated

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 ...

surround the building above its second story. . 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 May 28, 1976.

References

Courthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in South Dakota County courthouses in South Dakota Beaux-Arts architecture in South Dakota Government buildings completed in 1922 National Register of Historic Places in Rapid City, South Dakota Government of Rapid City, South Dakota 1922 establishments in South Dakota {{SouthDakota-NRHP-stub