Sioux County Courthouse (Iowa)
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Sioux County Courthouse
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| Location | Off Iowa Highway 10, Orange City, Iowa |
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| Coordinates | 43°0′16″N 96°3′30″W / 43.00444°N 96.05833°WCoordinates: 43°0′16″N 96°3′30″W / 43.00444°N 96.05833°W |
| Built | 1902-1904 |
| Architect | Beach, Wilfred W. |
| Architectural style | Romanesque Revival, Richardsonian Romanesque |
| MPS | County Courthouses in Iowa TR (AD) |
| NRHP Reference # | 77000559 |
| Added to NRHP | April 11, 1977 |
The Sioux County Courthouse is a Richardsonian Romanesque courthouse in Orange City, Iowa, the county seat of Sioux County, Iowa. Designed by Wilfred Warren (W.W.) Beach, it was built from 1902 to 1904.
Sioux County was organized on January 20, 1860, on land occupied by the indigenous Sioux until they were forced to abandon it under the terms of the fourth Treaty of Prairie du Chien in 1830. The original courthouse was a log structure on the Big Sioux River in the hamlet of Calliope, Iowa (now part of Hawarden). That building was part office, part residence, and part fort, but in 1869–1870 the White residents of Calliope fled to Sioux City, Iowa, 40 miles to the south, temporarily abandoning the log courthouse during renewed armed Native American resistance to the newcomers. The courthouse was sold off soon after the Whites returned, when after a referendum in 1872 the county seat was moved to Orange City. Sioux County had no central county offices until the present courthouse was finished over 30 years later. With the approval of a bond issue, Sioux County selected W.W. Beach (1872–1937) as its architect. Beach had been born in 1872, the same year that the county seat was moved to Orange City. His birthplace was Alton, in Sioux County, just three miles east of the new county seat. Beach had established his architectural practice in Sioux City only in 1899, with his first major commission being the Main Hall (later Lewis Hall) for Morningside College in that city. By the time the Sioux County Courthouse was completed, Beach had hired promising young William L. Steele (1875–1949) as his draftsman, and the two would later form a brief partnership.
Construction on the courthouse began in June 1902, but the construction company went bankrupt, delaying completion until October 1904. Just five years later, lightning destroyed the top of the tower in 1907, and it was replaced with a hip roof and a 10-foot-tall cast bronze statue personifying Justice (Vrouwe Justitia).
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