Rice County Courthouse and Jail

The Rice County Courthouse, located at 218 3rd Street NW in Faribault, Rice County, in the U.S. state of Minnesota, is an Art Deco building constructed of natural-face Faribault stone horizontally banded at intervals with sawed-faced stone. Nairne W. Fisher of St. Cloud was the architect for the courthouse, and is also credited with designing the Pope County Courthouse. The main rotunda has metal fixtures and Art Deco glass. Polished black and gray Tennessee marble is used extensively in the walls, floors, and stairs, with a terrazzo map of Rice County centered on the floor. The 16-foot-high (4.9 m) courtroom on the third floor was finished with fine-grained walnut walls with matching custom-built furnishings. The building was built in 1934[4] at a cost of $200,000.[1]

The former Rice County Jail from the south
Rice County Courthouse
The Rice County Courthouse from the south
Location218 3rd Street NW, Faribault, Minnesota
Coordinates44°17′38″N 93°16′18″W
Area5 acres (2.0 ha)
Built1910, 1934[1]
ArchitectNairne W. Fisher (courthouse), Albert Schippel (jail)
Architectural styleArt Deco (courthouse), Richardsonian Romanesque (jail)
MPSRice County MRA
NRHP reference No.82003016[2][3]

A guidebook to Minnesota architecture described the courthouse building as "A near-perfect mixture of the classical and the Zigzag Moderne. Relief sculpture on the sides of the building along 4th and 3rd Streets extols civic virtue, industry and farming. Within, a central rotunda is approached by a Zigzag Moderne staircase; Moderne metal and glass light fixtures abound."[5]

The brick jail building, located at 128 3rd Street NW in Faribault, was constructed in 1910 in the Richardsonian Romanesque style, and was designed by Albert Schippel of Mankato, Minnesota.

References
  1. "Rice County Courthouse". Minnesota Judicial Branch. Retrieved 2009-01-17.
  2. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  3. "National Register of Historic Places". www.nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com. Retrieved 2009-01-17.
  4. Rice County Minnesota, County History. See photos of early 1930s courthouse construction.
  5. David Gebhard, Tom Martinson, "A Guide to the Architecture of Minnesota", University of Minnesota Press, 1978, page 271.
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