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The first Adams County seat was established by act of
the Iowa Legislature on January 12, 1853, at Quincy (now nonexistant)
Iowa. The courthouse was a frame building but official court
records were kept in private dwellings. Quincy would remain the
county seat for the next eighteen years. The building was
later used as a schoolhouse and in 1932 it was torn down. In
November, 1872, the people voted to remove the courthouse from Quincy and
locate the county seat in Corning.
The first courthouse in Corning was built in 1872 at
the present site of the Adams County courthouse. It was also a wood
frame structure. The county jail was built in 1877 and used until
1955. This courthouse was destroyed by fire on February 1, 1888.
Business buildings in Corning then served as temporary
quarters for the county offices.
On November 5, 1889, Adams County voters approved a
bond issue not to exceed $30,000 for construction of a new courthouse.
Money was to be raised by taxation of not to exceed 2 mills on the dollar
each year. The new courthouse was dedicated on June 20, 1890.
Barely 40 years later, this building, called one of the most modern in the
country with its Queen Anne style of architecture, began to deteriorate
and was razed in 1955.
After three previous attempts, a bond issue finally
carried in 1954 and a three-story building costing $225,000 was
constructed at the current site. In October, 1955, the new offices
of the Adams County Courthouse opened -- they were painted in contemporary
color schemes evoking "the feeling of the good taste of the Museum of
Modern Art of New York." The fourth Adams County
Courthouse was billed by the Des Moines Register's Picture Magazine in
1955 as the most exciting thing to happen in public building in Iowa in
about 40 years. Chuck Offenburger, the Iowa Boy, of the Des
Moines Register would later give this coral and turquoise courthouse
building the distinction of being "the ugliest courthouse in the
State of Iowa."
The flat roof design of this new modern courthouse
would prove to cause considerable problems and it was replaced with a
slant roof design in the 1980's. In 1985, Federal Revenue Sharing
funds made it possible to add a handicap accessible entry and install an
elevator.
In August, 1998, a courthouse renovation project was
started taking one year to complete. Improvements totaling $850,000
included: new energy-efficient windows and doors, a new
exterior finish, insulation, and new sign and entrance canopy.
The remodeled jail and jail addition (all now handicapped accessible)
accommodates 4, 6, and 8 beds in a dormitory-type setting plus a 2-bed
holding cell. The interior of the courthouse was all
repainted. Ceiling fans, new lighting, heating/cooling units,
radiator valves, and actuators were installed in most of the offices.
- from the web site of Adams County |
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