The Woodbury County Courthouse is a building that fills an entire quarter block in Sioux City, Iowa

Sioux City, Iowa

Sioux City is a city in Plymouth and Woodbury counties in the western part of the U.S. state of Iowa. The population was 82,684 in the 2010 census, a decline from 85,013 in the 2000 census, which makes it currently the fourth largest city in the state....

. It is regarded as "one of the finest Prairie School

Prairie School

Prairie School was a late 19th and early 20th century architectural style, most common to the Midwestern United States.The works of the Prairie School architects are usually marked by horizontal lines, flat or hipped roofs with broad overhanging eaves, windows grouped in horizontal bands,...

 buildings in the United States" and has been declared a National Historic Landmark

National Historic Landmark

A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...

. It is used for legal proceedings in the county.

First Courthouses

Though Sioux City was made the county seat in 1858, the first permanent Woodbury County

Woodbury County, Iowa

-2010 census:The 2010 census recorded a population of 102,172 in the county, with a population density of . There were 41,454 housing units, of which 39,052 were occupied.-2000 census:...

 courthouse was not finished until 1878. It was designed by Des Moines architect William L. Foster and built by brothers Charles E. Hedges and Daniel T. Hedges for $75,000.

Second Courthouse

In 1914, the county determined that the courthouse was too small for the city and they decided to build a new one. The old courthouse was sold and the new one, designed by the Minneapolis architect George Grant Elmslie

George Grant Elmslie

George Grant Elmslie was an American, though born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, Prairie School architect whose work is mostly found in the Midwestern United States...

 in collaboration with the Sioux City architect William L. Steele

William L. Steele

William LaBarthe Steele was an important architect of the Prairie School during the early twentieth century. A graduate of the University of Illinois, Steele worked in the office of renowned architect Louis Sullivan in Chicago, Illinois 1897–1900...

 and Elmslie's partner, William Gray Purcell

William Gray Purcell

William Gray Purcell was a Prairie School architect in the Midwestern United States. He partnered with George Grant Elmslie. The firm of Purcell and Elmslie produced designs for buildings in twenty two states, Australia, and China...

, was constructed from July 10, 1916 to March 1, 1918 at a cost of $850,000. This building is the current courthouse. It is made of Roman brick

Roman brick

Roman brick can refer either to a type of brick originating in Ancient Rome and spread by the Romans to the lands they conquered; or to a modern type of brick, inspired by the ancient prototypes...

 and granite

Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

. It also has a 157-foot-tall tower on top of the building and features sculptural work by Alfonso Iannelli

Alfonso Iannelli

Alfonso Iannelli was an Italian-American sculptor, artist, and industrial designer.Based in Chicago for most of his life, Iannelli was born in Andretta, Italy on February 17, 1888. He came to America in 1898...

 over its doors. In 1973, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

. It was declared a National Historic Landmark

National Historic Landmark

A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...

in 1996.