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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
He was known locally in Albany for his acting and playwriting abilities almost as well as his buildings.
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.
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 …
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.
and the not so …
While some suceeded, other counties were not as successful in replacing their history – Gilliam, Lake and Coos.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Today, after over a hundred years, the courthouse seemingly still services needs of the county adequately.
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.
Has the Wheeler Courthouse ever been renovated? If so any idea on when?
Outside of hvac and plumbing, the CH appears like it Burgraf designed it – classic late 19th century. No wind money in Wheeler vs Sherman.