Courthouse Building
The Dubuque County Courthouse is on the National Register of Historic Places. It was one of the first buildings in the Dubuque area so honored. Fridolin Heer - who designed several other notable buildings in Dubuque, including Sacred Heart Church - was chosen as the architect for this project. Heer decided to use Beaux-Arts architecture - a large and grand style with a great amount of detail, large columns, elaborate moldings, and free standing statuary in the design of the courthouse. The adjacent Dubuque County Jail is a National Historic Landmark.
The building is 88 feet (27 m) by 125 feet (38 m) in size. A 190-foot (58 m) high central tower is capped with a bronze statue of Lady Justice that is 14 feet (4.3 m) tall. Other pewter statues are also on the building. Several other statues were taken down during World War I and melted down to provide material for the war effort. The two circular architectural parts on top of the courthouse both contain pure gold roofs.
Read more about this topic: Dubuque County Courthouse
Famous quotes containing the words courthouse and/or building:
“It is told that some divorcees, elated by their freedom, pause on leaving the courthouse to kiss a front pillar, or even walk to the Truckee to hurl their wedding rings into the river; but boys who recover the rings declare they are of the dime-store variety, and accuse the throwers of fraudulent practices.”
—Administration in the State of Neva, U.S. public relief program. Nevada: A Guide to the Silver State (The WPA Guide to Nevada)
“I love art, and I love history, but it is living art and living history that I love.... It is in the interest of living art and living history that I oppose so-called restoration. What history can there be in a building bedaubed with ornament, which cannot at the best be anything but a hopeless and lifeless imitation of the hope and vigour of the earlier world?”
—William Morris (1834–1896)