Built 1926-1927 Phone +1 641-464-3231 Added to NRHP 2 July 1981 | NRHP Reference # 81000267 Architectural style Neoclassical architecture | |
 | ||
Location Madison St.
Mount Ayr, Iowa MPS County Courthouses in Iowa TR Address 109 W Madison St # 204, Mt Ayr, IA 50854, USA Similar Osceola County Courthouse, Ida County Courthouse, Union County Courthouse, Clarke County Courthouse, Humboldt County Courthouse | ||
The Ringgold County Courthouse in Mount Ayr, Iowa, United States was built in 1927. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981 as a part of the County Courthouses in Iowa Thematic Resource. The courthouse is the fourth building the county has used for court functions and county administration.
History
The first Ringgold County courthouse was constructed in 1856. It was destroyed in a tornado two years later. A frame building was constructed for the second courthouse and the county paid $3,500 to have it built. The third courthouse was under construction when it was destroyed in a fire on Thanksgiving Day 1889. The new courthouse was a brick and stone building that was built for $36,455. That building was condemned in 1921. It was given, along with $500 to a house wrecker to be torn down. Voters approved a new courthouse in 1926. The three-story brick building measures 86 by 91 feet (26 by 28 m) and was built at a cost of $132,533. It is considered a "budget classical" building by which the structure's Beaux-Arts and Neoclassical design elements are stripped to a minimal forms. The building becomes more utilitarian than imaginatively expressed.