TURN OF THE CENTURY COURTHOUSES OF CHARLES BURGGRAF

The former courthouse of Douglas County designed by Charles Burggraf – 1891

COUNTY COURTHOUSES OF OREGON

Of Oregon’s thirty-six counties, nine featured courthouses designed by Charles Burggraf at the turn of the 19th century.  Burggraf was an Oregon-based architect and German immigrant.  Three of those nine are still in use today, with two still operating as county courthouses while the other is a museum.

County courthouses represent a fulcrum for life, especially in rural counties.  It is not uncommon for the courthouse to sit center stage in the middle of the county seat surrounded by businesses of the town, life swirling all around. As a result, courthouses were a place of local pride with construction matching both the image and budget of the county. Similarly, courthouses held both local judicial and administrative functions initially. 

Original courthouse from 1866 for Multnomah County in Portland.

1912 photo showing a newer and improved version of the courthouse

being erected around the old building hiding behind on the left.

Multnomah County Central Courthouse from north sidewalk of Hawthorne Bridge, October 2020.

Photo by Steve Morgan – Wikipedia.

Courthouse architecture is a fascinating science unto itself.  The architecture of the courthouse can reveal many things about a county.  First is the design.  Architectural eras are reflected in the courthouse.  By looking at a courthouse, with a little education, it is easy to guess accurately at the age of a building.

STYLE VERSUS FUNCTION

In Oregon, there are Victorian styles – Queen Anne revised, Italianate and Romanesque revised; Neo-Classical revised; Classic revised; Art Deco and Modern styles all represented.

Benton County’s “High Victorian Italianate” 1888 courthouse – oldest in Oregon still functioning, designed by Delos Neer – photo from Wikipedia.
Klamath County’s Neo-Grecian design 2013 was never completed.

As counties grow, so government grows.  Some counties try to maintain a link to the past by preserving the old courthouse and then simply build more buildings to house the new or expanded agencies.  Newer construction methods – plumbing, electricity, computer – have forced renovations or simple scrapping of the old and bringing on the new.  As a result, many counties went the latter route, losing a bit of touch with their roots in the process, because expense was always a major factor.

CHARLES BURGGRAF

all in the family

John Burggraf’s family emigrated from Germany in 1835 when John was only ten to live in Ohio near Columbus. Marrying Eliza Cox in 1851, they moved to Illinois a few years later where John worked as a carpenter. During the Civil War, John enlisted and fought with the 49th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment serving from December 1861 until September 1865 working as a carpenter, mechanic and secretary to the regimental colonel, Phineas Pease, an important railroad man before and after the war.

The monument of the 49th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment standing on the battlefield of Shiloh, the first significant battle for Charles’ father.

War over, John returned to Illinois working in building trades until 1884 when the family moved to Hastings, Nebraska. In Nebraska, John began an architectural firm.

bring on the successor

Charles Burggraf was born in 1866, one of nine children and the result of reunion after the long years of the war. He was 18 when the family moved to Nebraska where he attended Hastings College studying surveying, engineering, drawing and architecture. Working with his father for one year 1888-9 Charles moved to Grand Junction, Colorado with a new wife for another year 1890 and onto Salem, Oregon where he lived from 1891-99. Eventually, Charles would move the family one more time to Albany, OR.

This Charles Burggraf design for Oregon Agricultural College was originally Agriculture Hall. Today the building is the Joyce Furman Hall, home of the College of Education
The former First Baptist Church of Salem, Oregon. You get the idea Charles liked the Queen Anne tower motif.

Burggraf stayed busy during his long architectural career in Oregon. Best known for his public buildings, he designed eight county courthouses in Oregon (with another he greatly modified), two county courthouses in Washington, schools over much of Oregon, a couple of buildings at Oregon Agricultural College – now Oregon State University, several buildings for Oregon’s state hospital system, churches, a wealth of business buildings, and houses.

Burggraf designed Waldo Hall as a women’s dormitory for OAC. Today, the building is used for offices and classrooms with a supposedly haunted fourth floor. – Oregon State Historic Preservation Office

He was known locally in Albany for his acting and playwriting abilities almost as well as his buildings.

Morrow County Courthouse in Heppner. designed by Edgar Lazarus 1902. Wikipedia photo by Ian Poellet
Lazarus-designed Clatsop County Courthouse 1904-1907. Very similar to Morrow County without the clocktower which Clatsop County folk thought pretentious. Wikipedia photo by Ian Poellet

DESIGN FOR THE MANY BY THE FEW

Other Oregon courthouses also share architects.  Those courthouses with 19th century roots go to Delos D. Neer and Burgraff.  Later, the torch taken up by Edgar M. Lazarus and John Tourtelle.  Finally, in the post-WWII era, the Schmeer, Roald & Harrington architectural firm accounts for eight of the present “modern” courthouses.

Malheur County Courthouse 1957-1958, one of the Schmeer, Roald & Harrington eight. Wikipedia photo Ken Lund
Yamhill County has another of the eight built 1963-1964. Wikipedia photo M.O. Stevens

REBRANDS

In my mind, the more modern, the more boring.  Modern county courthouses in Oregon account for seventeen of the thirty-six.  Many of these also replaced buildings of much more interesting architecture.  Gilliam County – Condon, Oregon – as an example, replaced a Burggraf-designed revised Queen Anne structure with an ugly utilitarian design Bauhaus would have approved of.  Granted, a fire in the old courthouse and expenses to either repair and/or expand probably played a role. 

the good

Burggraf-designed Gilliam County Courthouse 1903 destroyed in a fire 1953.

New designed “modern” courthouse in Condon 1954-1955

Lake, Linn, Douglas, Tillamook, and Coos Counties all had Burggraf-designed courthouses of which the design giving clue to the era when the counties rose.  But, as time went on, all those courthouses were replaced, some successfully – Linn, Douglas and Tillamook.

Douglas County Courthouse designed by Charles Burggraf in Roseburg.

1891

Classic revisionist replacement built in 1928-1929

Design by John Tourtelle and Frank Hummel.

Burggraf’s Tillamook County Courthouse built in 1904-1905.

Survives today without the clocktower as a Pioneer Museum.

Art deco replacement – Tillamook County Courthouse

1932-1933 – Tillamook County photo.

Charles Burggraf redesign from 1890 for Linn County in Albany.
New Linn County Courthouse built 1938-1940 from design by Tourtelle and Phillips.

and the not so …

While some suceeded, other counties were not as successful in replacing their history – Gilliam, Lake and Coos.

Burggraf’s designed courthouse for Lake County in Lakeview.
Lake County’s replacement in 1954-1955.
Coos County’s Burggraf courthouse. The brick addition was named the Hall of Records and this is what the new courthouse was built around in 1952-1953.
The “new” courthouse – photo Coos County.

Two of Burggraf’s original courthouses remain in operation in Oregon.  They remain possibly because the county administrative growth has remained stable – Wheeler and Sherman Counties.  Both counties are the smallest in population in the State.

SHERMAN COUNTY’S ANSWER

Sherman County has maintained their ties to history, even though here, too, (only 1700+ residents) county government and function has grown.  Damage to the featured courthouse cupola went un-repaired for sixty+ years until a recent addition of a county annex building adjoined the old courthouse with the cupola rebuilt at the same time.

Old and new – note the old bricks on the original courthouse – they came from bricks made behind the courthouse – and the newer courthouse annex on the left.

Panorama front of the renewed Sherman Courthouse

The new left adjoins the old on right.

An aside: Interesting to see Sherman County’s courthouse design from a man one generation away from Germany. Resting just up the road in Wasco’s Sunrise Cemetery is Louis Scholl. Scholl was an emigrant from the same region as Burggraf’s father. He served as a civilian with the US Army helping to design buildings for the various forts from The Dalles to Walla Walla. Scholl also married into one of the most prominent Sherman County pioneer families.

Sherman County Courthouse before renovation of 2017-18 – note the cupola is not present atop the square tower. Sherman County photo

Similar annexes can be also seen in other counties in an attempt to preserve the past.  Not always does the annex idea work, here I am thinking of Polk County where the annexes seem to drown out the original. Not so here in Moro.

The old section of the renovated Sherman County Courthouse in Moro, Oregon. Note the replacement cupola made of lighter fiberglass this time around.
The remodelled Sherman County Courthouse from the architect website responsible Hennebery Eddy showing how the new molds effortlessly with the new.

BURGGRAF ACROSS THE RIVER

Burggraf also designed two county courthouses in Washington – Garfield and Skamania County.  The Garfield courthouse, still in operation in Pomeroy, a great example of his designs.

Garfield County’s Burrgraf-designed courthouse.

Courthouse still in service in Pomeroy, the county’s only incorporated town.

Wikipedia photo by Calvin Beale

The Skamania design resembles the one for Lincoln County on the Oregon Coast when the county seat was still in Toledo instead of Newport, today.  That design was a Queen Anne revision on the cheap.  The present-day modern Skamania courthouse is certainly boring architecturally, but the old courthouse, like its cousin in Toledo, was not a lot better.

Former Lincoln County Courthouse

1899 – Burggraf on the cheap.

Former Skamania County Courthouse in Stevenson, Washington.

WHEELER COUNTY FOSSILS ALONG

Wheeler County remains Oregon’s least populated.  The courthouse sits in a town of under 500 inhabitants, in other words, the metropolis of the county, by far.  The county is one of the more rugged counties in Oregon.  Besides the county seat of Fossil, only two other incorporated towns reside in the county, both under 200 people.  All three towns are separated by thirty miles or more with mountain passes also in the way.

Wheeler County Courthouse built on the west side of Fossil, Oregon.
Not much seems to have changed in Fossil except for the trees.

Today, after over a hundred years, the courthouse seemingly still services needs of the county adequately.

4 thoughts on “TURN OF THE CENTURY COURTHOUSES OF CHARLES BURGGRAF

  1. This was an interesting read and I liked seeing the old postcards. You’ve done a lot of very thorough research on this one, I can see! It seems from what I read that your courthouses perform the same function as our town halls and civic centres, with all the administrative offices of the district? Here a courthouse is a legal building, with magistrates and/or judges trying cases of criminal activity etc. Do you combine that function with the administrative in the one building?

    • In smaller counties, like Wheeler and Sherman, some administrative functions can find their way into the courthouse. But even in smaller counties, the old 19-20th century courthouses are too small for even legal practises – hence the new annex in Moro for Sherman County paid for by taxes on the many wind farms. Wheat alone – which is by far the main avocation of the county – was not enough of an income source for the county. The little cupola on top of the courthouse was knocked off by a winter storm in the 1950’s and not repaired until the recent remodel – 2017-18. Are their county seats for English counties? I know Germany has their Kreisstadts. I imagine US county structures are modelled somewhat after English lines … without the wigs. And legal courts are slightly different – no scarfs over the judges head as he/she decides on your fate – but the laws are similar – except for Louisiana which follows more along French lines.

    • Outside of hvac and plumbing, the CH appears like it Burgraf designed it – classic late 19th century. No wind money in Wheeler vs Sherman.

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