Rice County Courthouse and Jail

Infobox_nrhp | name =Rice County Courthouse
nrhp_type =nrhp


caption =
location= Faribault, Minnesota
lat_degrees = 44
lat_minutes = 17
lat_seconds = 38.8
lat_direction = N
long_degrees = 93
long_minutes = 16
long_seconds = 20
long_direction = W
locmapin = Minnesota
area =
built =1934cite web| title =Rice County Courthouse| publisher =Minnesota Judicial Branch| url =http://www.mncourts.gov/?siteID=0&page=CourtHouseProfile&ID=40056| accessdate =2007-10-31]
architect= Nairne W. Fisher (courthouse 1934), Albert Schippel (jail 1910)
architecture=Art Deco
added = April 6, 1982
governing_body =Local Government
refnum=82003016cite web|url=http://www.nr.nps.gov/|title=National Register Information System|date=2007-10-31|work=National Register of Historic Places|publisher=National Park Service] [cite web|url=http://www.nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com/MN/Rice/state.html|title=National Register of Historic Places|date=2007-10-31|publisher=National Park Service] The Rice County Courthouse, located at 218 3rd Street NW in Faribault, Rice County in the U.S. state of Minnesota is an Art Deco building constructed of natural-face Faribault stone horizontally banded at intervals with sawed-faced stone. Nairne W. Fisher of St. Cloud was the architect for the courthouse, and is also credited with designing the [http://www.mncourts.gov/default.aspx?page=34&ID=40051 Pope County Courthouse] . The main rotunda has metal fixtures and Art Deco glass. Polished black and gray Tennessee marble is used extensively in the walls, floors, and stairs, with a terrazzo map of Rice County centered on the floor. The sixteen-foot high courtroom on the third floor is finished with fine-grained walnut walls with matching custom-built furnishings. The building was built in 1934 [ [http://www.co.rice.mn.us/history.php Rice County Minnesota, County History] . See photos of early 1930's courthouse construction.] at a cost of $200,000.

A guidebook to Minnesota architecture described the courthouse building as "A near-perfect mixture of the classical and the Zigzag Moderne. Relief sculpture on the sides of the building along 4th and 3rd Streets extols civic Virtue, industry and farming. Within, a central rotunda is approached by a Zigzag Moderne staircase; Moderne metal and glass light fixtures abound." [David Gebhard, Tom Martinson, "A Guide to the Architecture of Minnesota", University of Minnesota Press, 1978, page 271.]

The brick jail building, constructed in 1910 in the Richardsonian Romanesque style, was designed by Albert Schippel of Mankato, Minnesota.

References