Crawford County Courthouse

Story

The Crawford County Courthouse is in Denison, Iowa, United States, the county seat of Crawford County, Iowa. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981.HistoryJ.W. Denison, a Baptist minister, owned in Harrison County and Crawford County. He offered to build a courthouse, hotel and store if the site was named the county seat. His offer was accepted and the place was called Denison. The first courthouse was a clay structure completed in 1859, and a frame addition was added that doubled its size in the 1870s. It was added onto again in 1881.The present courthouse was completed for about $115,000 in 1905. It was designed by Nebraska architect George A. Berlinghof in the Beaux-Arts style. The exterior is covered in Ohio marble. The old courthouse had been sold in 1903 and moved across the street. It had been used for a variety of commercial enterprises in subsequent years.