Blue Earth County Courthouse

The Blue Earth County Courthouse is the courthouse of Blue Earth County, Minnesota, United States, in the city of Mankato, the county seat. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Historic Blue Earth County Courthouse
The Blue Earth County Courthouse from the northwest
Location204 S. 5th St.,
Mankato, Minnesota
Coordinates44°9′49″N 93°59′57″W
Built1886–9
ArchitectHaley & Allen; Ring & Tobin
Architectural styleLate 19th And 20th Century Revivals
MPSBlue Earth County MRA
NRHP reference No.80001940 [1]
Added to NRHPJuly 28, 1980

History
Lady Justice

The building, completed in 1886, was the second courthouse in the county. The first courthouse in the county, a 20-by-24 foot one-story stone building, was built in 1857. It served as the location for the trial of 392 Dakota Indians after the Sioux Uprising. Thirty-eight Dakota were simultaneously hanged in December 1862.[2]

According to local Welsh-language poet James D. Price, whose Bardic name was "Ap Dewi", the first Eisteddfod held in Mankato took place at the Blue Earth County Courthouse on January 1, 1873.[3]

By the late 1800s, the county commissioners felt that the previous buildings were a "disgrace and gave strangers that we were behind the times. That the county was either poverty stricken or greatly lacking in enterprise."[2] The new building, designed by Minneapolis architects Haley & Allen, combined a Second Empire roof and dome with Italianate features. The stone was provided by a local quarry, with various techniques giving it both rusticated and ashlar surfaces. The copper-sheathed dome is capped with a statue of Lady Justice.[4]

References
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
  2. Logue, Mary; Douglas Ohman (2006). Courthouses of Minnesota. Minnesota Historical Society. ISBN 0-87351-550-1.
  3. Translated by Martha A. Davies (2015), History of the Welsh in Minnesota, Foreston, and Lime Springs, Iowa, Great Plains Welsh Heritage Project. Wymore, Nebraska. Pages 131.
  4. "Building Location Details: Blue Earth County Courthouse". Minnesota Judicial Branch. Retrieved 2007-06-17.
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