Steve Stimmel, architect/historian at Brooks Borg Skiles, had high praise Sunday for the Greene County courthouse. Stimmel, a reviewer of applications for the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa, said, “I don’t think I’ve seen a better maintained courthouse in the country.”
Stimmel was presenter at the historical museum following the rededication of the cornerstone at the courthouse. The cornerstone was first dedicated May 15, 1916.
Stimmel’s employer, Brooks Bork Skiles of Des Moines, traces its corporate lineage to Proudfoot and Bird, the firm that designed not only the Greene County courthouse, but many buildings on the campuses of the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa, the courthouses in Jasper, Dallas, Polk and Pocahontas counties, and the old Jefferson High School, still in use as the middle school.
Stimmel provided his firm’s “genealogy,” and then shared several photos of the original architectural drawings of the courthouse. Those drawings were done on starched linen and are remarkably well preserved.
His computer slides paired the drawings and photographs from the courthouse. The drawings were followed with care, except for one “error” Stimmel shared. Ornaments under the railing on a staircase were placed upside down. He didn’t specify the railing’s location.
Another showed the architect’s drawing of the mosaic seal on the rotunda floor, the cornucopia naming Greene County as the “Land of Plenty.” Chuck Offenburger during the Q & A period asked for suggestions of how to find out who created the mosaic. “This is a huge piece of original local art, and we don’t know who did it,” Offenburger said.
Stimmel said that information isn’t at Brooks Borg Skiles, but that it may turn up on the internet at some time. He said that a “clerk of the works” would have reported periodically to the board of supervisors during construction. If that was recorded in the minutes, the information is somewhere in the courthouse attic, former county auditor Mike Piepel said.
Stimmel said the interior of the courthouse is what makes it very special. “Everything is integrated. It’s a package,” he said. “Everything that has been done to it has been done in a way that has respect for the original. They haven’t taken away a lot. It still works. They found a way to get through those tough years of the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s when we just said, ‘No, we’re going to tear it down or we’re going to modernize it.’….. It’s outstanding. The maintenance is just outstanding.”
The Historical Society hosted Stimmel’s presentation. The courthouse cornerstone rededication was planned by the Courthouse 100 committee, chaired by Don Van Gilder. The Masonic Grand Lodge of Iowa and Morning Star Lodge 159 of Jefferson conducted the Masonic cornerstone dedication as in 1916.
The Courthouse 100 committee will soon start planning a gala celebration of the 100th anniversary of the dedication of the courthouse. That event was held Oct. 27, 1917.
