The Poweshiek County Courthouse in

Montezuma, Iowa Montezuma is a city in Poweshiek County, Iowa, United States. The population was 1,442 at the time of the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Poweshiek County. Geography Montezuma's longitude and latitude coordinates in decimal form are 41.58 ...

, United States, was built in 1859. It was individually listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artist ...

in 1981 as a part of the County Courthouses in Iowa Thematic Resource. In 2012 it was listed as a

contributing property In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distric ...

in the Montezuma Downtown Historic District. The courthouse is the second building the county has used for court functions and county administration.

History

Poweshiek County's first courthouse was a two-story frame building constructed on the northeast corner of the town square in 1850. It served the community as a school, church, and meeting place as well as a courthouse. The courtroom was on the first floor and the county offices were located on the second floor. In time the building was remodeled as a house. The present building was built for $1,928.15 in 1856. Drake & Dryden designed and built the

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but a ...

structure, which is one of the oldest courthouses and one of few that are left in this architectural style in Iowa. with An addition was made to the building in 1890 and major repair work was completed in 1933. Another addition on the south side of the building was completed in 1982.

Architecture

The courthouse is a two-story structure composed of dark red brick. A large square brick tower on the main facade rises to a white octagonal bell tower with a white dome. The arched main entrance is located at the base of the tower. The building also features pedimented

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aest ...

ends, a wide

triglyph Triglyph is an architectural term for the vertically channeled tablets of the Doric frieze in classical architecture, so called because of the angular channels in them. The rectangular recessed spaces between the triglyphs on a Doric frieze are ...

frieze In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...

, and

pilaster In classical architecture, a pilaster is an architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the main wal ...

s whose caps crowd the tops of the second-story windows. The raised basement is composed of coarse stone. The significance of the courthouse is derived from its association with county government, and the political power and prestige of Montezuma as the county seat.

References

{{NRHP in Poweshiek County, Iowa Government buildings completed in 1859 Greek Revival architecture in Iowa Buildings and structures in Poweshiek County, Iowa Courthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa County courthouses in Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Poweshiek County, Iowa Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in Iowa