Story County

For some weird reason nobody can quite figure out Ames is not the county seat of Story County. That honor goes to Ames ugly sister city Nevada. It's another county with a lame modern courthouse.

After our obligatory stop in Nevada we went to  Reiman Gardens at Iowa State University in neighboring Ames Iowa. the kids love this place.

Hamilton County

We were tricked! Hamilton has a newish 1970's courthouse right off of highway 20. No cool town square, no awesomely eccentric old time building. I'm sure it's very convenient and nice for the people who want to use county services but let's face it. It's L A M E.

 

It turns out there there is another "original" courthouse. I didn't learn about this until after we got home. I'm only partially checking Hamilton off the list. If we happen to be driving by Webster City again we will try and find the OG Courthouse. 

Have You Seen This Courthouse?

Webster County

I've never been to Fort Dodge but I can now say that it's everything everyone has ever said it was.

The Courthouse is cool. It's also right next to a string of classy bars (like "plan-b"), porn stores, abandoned buildings and Steve Kings campaign headquarters. Stay classy Fort Dodge.

Boone County

Finding the Boone County courthouse was a little hard. Apparently the county seat used to be in a different town called Boonesboro. Boone (originally named "Montana") expanded and eventually annexed Boonesboro and changed it's name to Boone. Which explains why the courthouse is several miles from "downtown" Boone.

Boon County's Couthouse

The courthouse is in the classic American " Renaissance Revival" style.

We also stopped at Ledges State Park In Boone County

Polk County

Polk County is our home base. Here we are at the awesome Des Moines farmers market with our lovely Beaux-Arts style couthouse in the background. This is another Proudfoot and Bird building.

Marion County

Marion County's courthouse in Knoxville is quite nice. I like the color. We also visited Pella Iowa.

 

The open area under the clock tower is a nice feature.

I've always found Pella to be a little creepy. In a Stepford Wives kind of way.

Dallas County

We also got some sweet corn in Adel Iowa. Fun Des Moines connection: The couthouse was designed by the Des Moines firm of Proudfoot & Bird who also did many civic structures like Roosevelt and Lincoln High Schools, the ISU memorial union, Hotel Fort Des Moines, and the Drake Library.

  

 

Madison County

Our quest begins in Madison County. Home to the famous bridges. We agreed that Madison is almost aggressively picturesque.

 

The renaissance revival couthouse is really nice. A+

 

The courhouse cost $120,000 when it was built. You just can't make your dollar stretch like you used to.

 

 We also stopped at several of the famous covered bridges.Several years ago someone was going around burning them down. I guess they really didn't like the book. The remaining ones have surveillance systems.