Minnesota - Cottonwood County - Windom - 56101

The Cottonwood County Courthouse is a governmental building of Cottonwood County, Minnesota, United States. It is located at 900 3rd Avenue in the county seat of Windom. It was designed by architects Omeyer and Thori and was built in 1904. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 18, 1977.

"In 1903, the Cottonwood board of commissioners toured four midwestern states before deciding to hire Omeyer and Thori of St. Paul as the architect.

The building, which cost nearly $60,000 to build, rises from a basement level of deep red sandstone through two stories of buff-colored brick. Identical grand pedimented porticos on the north and south are supported by two pairs of Corinthian columns with spread eagles in their capitals. The building is crowned with an octagonal drum, which supports a segmented dome two stories above the level of the roof. A figure of Justice stands on top. Shallow segmented domes painted silver top the four large corner pavilions.

The two-story central rotunda is the dominant feature inside. The rotunda murals and the gold-leaf-embellished mural of Justice above the bench in the courtroom — said to be patterned after a painting in the Palace of Justice in Paris — was completed by L.A. Thiel & Co., fresco artists from Chicago.

In 1940, the north and south entrances were enclosed and sagging wooden floors were replaced in 1953. The court area, rest rooms, and lighting have been updated and a law library has been added. In 1975, the rotunda was refurbished and the Windom Lions’ Club donated a set of chimes on the outside of the building. Four years later, the statue of Justice was lowered and restored."

From http://www.mncourts.gov/Find-Courts/Cottonwood/CourthouseHistory.aspx)