The Old McDonald County Courthouse is a National Register of Historic Places listed building located at 400 N. Main Street in Pineville, Missouri, the county seat of McDonald County, Missouri. It is situated in the center of Pineville's town square and served as the county's courthouse from 1871 until 1978, when a new courthouse was constructed two blocks north of the square. The structure underwent a significant restoration from 2010 to 2015 and is currently operated as a museum by the McDonald County Historical Society. It is designed in the American Foursquare styleU.S. Department of the Interior; National Register of Historic Places Application; Old McDonald County Courthouse; March 6, 2012: http://dnr.mo.gov/shpo/nps-nr/12000251.pdf and was featured in the 1939 film Jesse James, which starred Tyrone Power as the titular outlaw and Henry Fonda as his brother Frank James. It is one of three sites in the county on the National Register of Historic Places, which also includes the Powell Bridge in the rural community of Powell, Missouri.
The main, two-story section of the building is three bays on the east and west and five bays on the north and south. Its current stucco exterior, which was added in 1943, covers thick, load-bearing walls that consist of soft, locally made bricks, many of which were salvaged from the rubble of a previous courthouse on the site. The building is on a dressed and faced stone foundation with a stone water table and the hipped roof is slightly flared, with each slope containing a vented dormer. A paneled frieze circles the entire second floor of the structure and the courthouse's numerous double-hung 2-on-2 windows appear original. The one-story addition on the south side of the courthouse was added in 1943, at the same time the stucco exterior was applied, which was necessary to protect the soft bricks from deterioration.
Previous courthouses Upon the creation of McDonald County from neighboring Newton County on March 3, 1849, two communities, Rutledge and Maryville (which was later renamed Pineville) vied to be the county seat. The competition included an 1850 confrontation in Rutledge that resulted in the death of three participants. As such, from 1849 until the winter of 1857 the county operated with two courthouses, the one in Rutledge being a log structure, and two sets of officials. Finally, the Missouri General Assembly appointed commissioners to select the permanent location of the county seat, that choice being Pineville.University of Missouri Extension; McDonald County Courthouse Website: http://extension.missouri.edu/p/UED6059
1858 Courthouse The first courthouse in Pineville, following the official designation of the town as the county seat, was a one-story frame building built in 1858-59. It measured 30 feet square and stood at the corner of Third and Main. The site of that first courthouse would later be a livery stable.
1861 Courthouse The second courthouse was a three-story brick building built in 1861. It was located in the approximate location of the existing Old McDonald County Courthouse in the center of the town square. The top story was reserved for the Freemasons, though the main lodge room was apparently never used for this purpose. The anteroom on the third floor, however, was rented for circuit and county clerk's office space. During the Civil War, McDonald County faced a tumultuous period, with residents' alliances split between the Union and the Confederacy. The result of this led the rise of bushwackers in the area. In August or September 1863 the courthouse was burned during an attack by bushwackers from south of town, led by a local man named Bill Hinson, destroying most of the county's records. The only records believed to be saved from the fire were a few carried away by County Clerk Absolem Applebee (A.A.) Hensley (1810-1882).History of McDonald County, Missouri; Judge J. A. Sturges; 1897: http://www.librarymail.org/genehist/sturgesbookv2_2.pdf
Construction Lacking a permanent courthouse for three years, in November 1866 the court appointed a representative to rent rooms for county use and to sell the bricks and bats from the old courthouse. Roman Malach, a local historian, noted a payment of $25 made to Neosho-based millwright and architect Zelats P. Cogswell (1829–1900) for designing the plans of a new courthouse beginning in 1869. Cogswell's design for the -story building was an early version of what would become the American Foursquare style, notable for a boxy, symmetrical design. And on December 27, 1869 the court accepted the low bid of $4,949.50 from contractors Willis R. Cox (1828-1911) and Zachariah Smith (1818-1880) for construction of the new courthouse. The courthouse was originally planned to have a wood exterior, but that detail was changedMcDonald County Courthouse Being Discussed as Historical Site; The Joplin Globe; May 31, 1978; Page 1 and construction began in 1870 on a brick building to measure approximately 42 by 48 feet. The building's construction included the use of some of the bricks from the previous 1861 courthouse along with new materials, including oak timber rafters and floor beams, primarily 2x12s, and soft locally made bricks. The court accepted the finished building on June 3, 1871.
The construction of the building was paid for, at least partially, by the issuance of bonds. In June 1981, George Foster, who owned the Ginger Blue Resort in the nearby McDonald County community of Ginger Blue, found in the resort's attic one of these bonds, dated June 19, 1871, that offered a face value of $100, plus 10 percent annual interest. When accounting for the interest over 110 years, the value was estimated at $3,574,636.84. The county court convened on the issue and considering the county was $5,000 in debt and its budget was less than one-third the value of Foster's bond, they rejected it on the condition for redemption of the bond, which stated "at the pleasure of the county court." Foster's discovery of the bond also fueled other people coming forward with similar bonds, but the county court rejected all of them.Innkeeper George Foster Finds a Missouri County's Word Is Not as Good as Its Bond; People Magazine; May 31, 1982: http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20082271,00.html
Interior As originally built, the building contained four rooms downstairs that held county offices with a large courtroom upstairs, that may have contained a holding area for prisoners at the top of an exterior stairwell. The entrances to the main long east-west hallway were double-leaf and transomed, consisting of two 3x12 doors. The transoms consisted of two glass panes separated by vertical wood muntins. The upstairs courtroom was accessed by an exterior enclosed staircase on the east side of the building. The original four-room interior with a courtroom upstairs was not elaborate, consisting of hardwood pine flooring, brick walls that were plastered and painted, and hewn lumber for the ceiling. The rudimentary appearance of the building exemplified the simplicity of McDonald County (and much of southwestern Missouri) at the time.
Renovations and additions In the century following the courthouse's construction, the building saw multiple additions and changes to enlarge and modernize it.
1905 addition The county commission approved a $1,500 appropriation on June 10, 1905 for an addition on the east side of the building to provide vaults for records storage. The full-height addition, like the original building, was constructed of brick and enlarged the courthouse's western exposure by approximately a third. It was during this expansion that interior staircases to the second floor and to the partially finished attic, both making 90 degree turns at the top and with tongue-and-groove wainscoting used in the sidewalls, were installed and the exterior staircase was removed. The addition also altered the original building's pure Foursquare design by adding 30 feet to the first and second floors plus two attic rooms with eight foot ceilings. Like with the construction of the original building, the addition used locally manufactured bricks and for consistency the new fenestration matched that in the original building. The addition also resulted in the dormers and chimneys being moved somewhat in order to maximize the symmetrical appearance of the now-modified Foursquare design.
The added rooms featured hardwood pine flooring, modest string course moldings and corner blocks, while the existing rooms were left with their original plank flooring. A vault was installed in the northeast corner room of the original Foursquare portion, with entry through a five-foot hallway between the original northwest room and the added-on northeast room. On the second floor, a hallway was added leading to the courtroom. The attic and the staircase above the second floor were only partially finished, with views of brick walls, rafters and other portions of the building's wood framework, and lathing readily visible. Horizontal tongue-and-groove siding was installed in the finished attic rooms. The courtroom itself was enlarged to provide more space in the jury box and seating area for attorneys. This was done by reducing the spectator section approximately four feet, which is still evidenced by marks left in the wood flooring and plastered walls. Although no records exist to indicate when this renovation to the courtroom was completed, it is surmised that these changes occurred in connection with the 1905 addition.
1924 electrical installation Electricity was installed in the building in 1924. This included 12 lights throughout the structure, including four in the courtroom.
1943 addition In 1943 a one-story frame addition with a flat roof was added along the full length of the south side of the courthouse. The addition included restrooms was needed to provide additional office and vault space. It increased the total size of the courthouse to 5,761 square feet. It was also at this time that the building was stuccoed, covering up the original brick exterior, and painted white. The stucco provided both a uniform veneer to the building and aided in preventing continued deterioration of the original soft brick exterior. Additionally, small double windows located in the attic dormers were boxed in and replaced by louvered vents and battens.
At this time, the downstairs rooms were assigned to the county clerk, collector, circuit clerk and recorder, probate judge and treasurer. And the second floor included the courtroom and offices for the superintendent of schools and the judge's chambers which doubled as a jury room.
1969 renovation Modern paneling was installed throughout the building's interior, covering the original painted plaster walls, and a suspended ceiling was added to the courtroom, lowering it from its original 16 foot height. During this time the courtroom was also rewired and new light fixtures were installed.
1973 renovation In 1973 small changes were made in the 1943 addition, when a storage area was created by moving and renovating multiple restrooms. The storage was designated for voter registration files.
Jesse James film