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Beltrami County Courthouse
The Beltrami County Courthouse, located at 619 Beltrami Avenue in Bemidji, is a three-story red brick and sandstone structure in the Beaux Arts style and the county’s most imposing example of public architecture.
After Beltrami County was organized in 1897, local court proceedings took place in a cold, drafty building on the corner of Fourth Street and Beltrami Avenue. The county grew quickly, and by 1902, citizens were pushing for a new courthouse. Voters approved a bond issue of $50,000, to be used for a new jail and courthouse, in an election held on March 11, 1902. Although two saloon owners, Olia Olson and Stener T. Odegard from Shevlin, challenged the legality of the bond election, a judge dismissed their case on June 7, 1902, and construction of the new courthouse began.
At the time, Beltrami County already owned all of the land in Block Seven, between Sixth and Seventh Streets, which was only a few blocks north of the old courthouse. Architects Kinney & Detweiler of Minneapolis drew up plans for a Beaux Arts-style building, square in shape, to be constructed out of red sandstone and bricks from a local brickyard.
A bid of $39,975 from Schmidt Bros. was accepted on May 24, 1902, with the understanding that the courthouse would be ready for occupancy by December 1, 1902. O. M. Jellestad spent thirteen nights at the old building guarding the auditor’s and treasurer’s records after vault doors were removed to new courthouse. The County Board of Commissioners approved the building on December 12, 1902; the court held its first session in the space on January 3, 1903.
The courthouse’s most striking feature is its rotunda, which occupies the center of the main hall on the first floor and extends past the second floor into the dome. A railing surmounted by a brass guard rail circles the rotunda on the second floor. On the exterior, a convex dome rises above an arcaded tower topped by a statue of blind Justice with her scale.
The space intended for a clock served as an open-sky observation point during the Cold War. During the 1950s, volunteers stationed in the cupola watched for uncharted planes entering Bemidji airspace (this area was later glassed in).
When the building first opened, visitors reached the courtroom via a double flight of stairs. The courtroom, which had covered half of the third floor, was remodeled and condensed to make space for offices in 1937.
In 1971, County Auditor Wayne Alsop noticed a staircase inside the courthouse leading to an attic. Inside it, he and Jay Griggs discovered artifacts and written records, including tax books dating to 1897, underneath rafters more than ten inches thick. They also found the scales originally held by the statue of Justice, which had fallen down during a 1971 storm and been moved to the attic for storage.
Construction of a large annex began in June 1973 and ended in July 1974. The finished structure housed two courtrooms on its first floor, and court personnel moved from the old courthouse to the annex in July 1974.
In 1976, the county remodeled the old courtroom into office space. On December 13, 1977, one day after the courthouse celebrated its Diamond Jubilee, the board of commissioners received bids for a complete remodeling at an anticipated price of $425,000.
The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 16, 1988. Thanks to a $20,000 matching grant from the Minnesota Historical Society, it was renovated in 2000. The grant money funded the restoration of the stairs, pillars, and retaining walls at the building’s east entrance facing Beltrami Avenue Northwest.
Bibliography
Beltrami County Courthouse. National Register of Historic Places nomination file, reference number 88000665.
https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/88000665
Editor's note: The article reproduces content from this public-domain text.
“Beltrami Courts Have New House." Bemidji Pioneer, July 16, 1974.
“To Bond the County.” Bemidji Pioneer, Vol. VI, no. 46, January 16, 1902.
“Contract is Let.” Bemidji Pioneer, Vol. VII, No. 13, May 29, 1902.
County Board Approves Remodeling Project.” Bemidji Pioneer, February 11, 1976.
“Courthouse to Get Facelift.” Bemidji Pioneer, February 20, 2000.
“The Diamond Jubilee of a Grand Old Lady.” Bemidji Pioneer, December 12, 1977.
“New Court House.” Bemidji Pioneer, June 21, 1900.
“New Court House.” Bemidji Pioneer, December 18, 1902.
“Scales of Justice.” Bemidji Pioneer, March 6, 1971.
Related Resources
Primary
Civil and criminal case files and select trial transcripts, 1897–1959, 2012
Minnesota District Court (Beltrami County)
State Archives Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
Description: The permanently retained civil case files address the following topics: change of name, condemnation, eminent domain, judicial ditch, quiet title, torrens, trust, contested elections, decisions by the Appellate Courts, public entities, treaty rights, and adoption. Criminal case files involving felonies are also permanently retained. Adoption case files are sealed.
http://www2.mnhs.org/library/findaids/gr00683.xml
Secondary
Rusch, Arthur L. County Capitols: The Courthouses of South Dakota. Pierre, SD: South Dakota Historical Society Press, 2014.
Spaulding, Norman W. “The Enclosure of Justice: Courthouse Architecture, Due Process, and the Dead Metaphor of Trial.” Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities 24, no. 1 (2012): 311–343.
http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/yjlh/vol24/iss1/16/
Web
Architectural Styles of American and Europe. Beaux Arts.
https://architecturestyles.org/beaux-arts/
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Interior of the Beltrami County Courthouse’s cupola
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View from the Beltrami County Courthouse's cupola
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View from the Beltrami County Courthouse's cupola
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Turning Point
In 1974, the courthouse’s purpose shifts when an annex is built, and the Beltrami County court system moves into it.
Chronology
March 11, 1902
May 1902
December 12, 1902
December 24, 1902
January 3, 1903
1937
1950s
1973
1988
2000
Bibliography
Beltrami County Courthouse. National Register of Historic Places nomination file, reference number 88000665.
https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/88000665
Editor's note: The article reproduces content from this public-domain text.
“Beltrami Courts Have New House." Bemidji Pioneer, July 16, 1974.
“To Bond the County.” Bemidji Pioneer, Vol. VI, no. 46, January 16, 1902.
“Contract is Let.” Bemidji Pioneer, Vol. VII, No. 13, May 29, 1902.
County Board Approves Remodeling Project.” Bemidji Pioneer, February 11, 1976.
“Courthouse to Get Facelift.” Bemidji Pioneer, February 20, 2000.
“The Diamond Jubilee of a Grand Old Lady.” Bemidji Pioneer, December 12, 1977.
“New Court House.” Bemidji Pioneer, June 21, 1900.
“New Court House.” Bemidji Pioneer, December 18, 1902.
“Scales of Justice.” Bemidji Pioneer, March 6, 1971.
Related Resources
Primary
Civil and criminal case files and select trial transcripts, 1897–1959, 2012
Minnesota District Court (Beltrami County)
State Archives Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
Description: The permanently retained civil case files address the following topics: change of name, condemnation, eminent domain, judicial ditch, quiet title, torrens, trust, contested elections, decisions by the Appellate Courts, public entities, treaty rights, and adoption. Criminal case files involving felonies are also permanently retained. Adoption case files are sealed.
http://www2.mnhs.org/library/findaids/gr00683.xml
Secondary
Rusch, Arthur L. County Capitols: The Courthouses of South Dakota. Pierre, SD: South Dakota Historical Society Press, 2014.
Spaulding, Norman W. “The Enclosure of Justice: Courthouse Architecture, Due Process, and the Dead Metaphor of Trial.” Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities 24, no. 1 (2012): 311–343.
http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/yjlh/vol24/iss1/16/
Web
Architectural Styles of American and Europe. Beaux Arts.
https://architecturestyles.org/beaux-arts/