This page heps organize a personal project for collecting and rating quality photographs of the
courthouses of
Missouri counties for use in Wikpedia and other Wikimedia projects. Many of Missouri's county courthouses date from the mid-to-late 1800s to the early 1900s and exhibit interesting, sometimes historically significant architecture. Many are on the
National Register of Historic Places.
The county courthouse is the locus of county government in most counties. Originally a courthouse may have housed all of the offices of county government in addition to courts. Even after other government functions expand into other detached facilities the county courthouse may remain the most distinctive and tangible symbol of the functions of the county.
Many counties have outgrown their historic courthouses and have responded varying ways. The old building may have been expanded by an addition being built onto it; parts of the county government may have been moved into one or more newer buildings while the old courthouse is continued to be used, either for courts or for other county offices; some historic courthouses may have been turned into museums after they are no longer used by the government; while others, perhaps being too expensive to maintain for that or any other purpose, have been razed.
In extreme cases, such as
St. Louis County and
Jackson County, the county government facilities may constitute a large campus, and the courts themselves may operate in several dispersed facilities, further eroding the concept of the county courthouse embodying the government of the county.
At the other extreme, one wonders how the shrinking populations of
some rural counties will be able to continue to fund the functions of a county government and the facilities to house it.
Note that this is not in the main article space and that the above consists of unsourced
personal observation.
Each county seat is a clickable link to the county article.
The
larger map can be used to plan road trips for collecting new photographs.
Photos of county courthouses
The ratings (column 3) are totally subjective and somewhat inconsistently applied. It is meant simply to indicate whether a replacement photo is perhaps worth pursuing. Ideally all photos would qualify as
Quality Images. That may be an unrealistic goal, and an "A" has been given here to some images that would not qualify for QI. A good, clear photo giving a good, unobstructed view of the building will rate an "A" here. Flaws such as partially obscured buildings, unfortunate cropping, perspective distortion, poor lighting, poor focus, etc., degrade an image and should affect its rating.
Street addresses in this table may be approximate or incorrect.
^= created by user Kbh3rd; = modified in some way by Kbh3rd
^Links are to the NRHP applications at the
State Historic Preservation Office. Care must be taken before applying these registration numbers to a photo on Wikimedia Commons to ensure that they apply to the building pictured. Several historic courthouses have been replaced by modern buildings, and these references may be for a building that is now serves other purposes, not the center of county government. References in parentheses refer to some possible such cases (Phelps, Greene, et al.).
This page heps organize a personal project for collecting and rating quality photographs of the
courthouses of
Missouri counties for use in Wikpedia and other Wikimedia projects. Many of Missouri's county courthouses date from the mid-to-late 1800s to the early 1900s and exhibit interesting, sometimes historically significant architecture. Many are on the
National Register of Historic Places.
The county courthouse is the locus of county government in most counties. Originally a courthouse may have housed all of the offices of county government in addition to courts. Even after other government functions expand into other detached facilities the county courthouse may remain the most distinctive and tangible symbol of the functions of the county.
Many counties have outgrown their historic courthouses and have responded varying ways. The old building may have been expanded by an addition being built onto it; parts of the county government may have been moved into one or more newer buildings while the old courthouse is continued to be used, either for courts or for other county offices; some historic courthouses may have been turned into museums after they are no longer used by the government; while others, perhaps being too expensive to maintain for that or any other purpose, have been razed.
In extreme cases, such as
St. Louis County and
Jackson County, the county government facilities may constitute a large campus, and the courts themselves may operate in several dispersed facilities, further eroding the concept of the county courthouse embodying the government of the county.
At the other extreme, one wonders how the shrinking populations of
some rural counties will be able to continue to fund the functions of a county government and the facilities to house it.
Note that this is not in the main article space and that the above consists of unsourced
personal observation.
Each county seat is a clickable link to the county article.
The
larger map can be used to plan road trips for collecting new photographs.
Photos of county courthouses
The ratings (column 3) are totally subjective and somewhat inconsistently applied. It is meant simply to indicate whether a replacement photo is perhaps worth pursuing. Ideally all photos would qualify as
Quality Images. That may be an unrealistic goal, and an "A" has been given here to some images that would not qualify for QI. A good, clear photo giving a good, unobstructed view of the building will rate an "A" here. Flaws such as partially obscured buildings, unfortunate cropping, perspective distortion, poor lighting, poor focus, etc., degrade an image and should affect its rating.
Street addresses in this table may be approximate or incorrect.
^= created by user Kbh3rd; = modified in some way by Kbh3rd
^Links are to the NRHP applications at the
State Historic Preservation Office. Care must be taken before applying these registration numbers to a photo on Wikimedia Commons to ensure that they apply to the building pictured. Several historic courthouses have been replaced by modern buildings, and these references may be for a building that is now serves other purposes, not the center of county government. References in parentheses refer to some possible such cases (Phelps, Greene, et al.).