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Description:
The Bon Homme County Courthouse consists of a flat roofed, rectangular,
three-story, granite building with a small central dome constructed in
the Renaissance Revival style. The facade and sides are symmetrical
with three bays. On each, the center bay is projected forward. On the
first floor, the center bay on the facade has a rusticated appearance
which is caused by deeply scored joints between the stones. The rest of
the first floor and the second and third floors are of smooth stone.
The foundation rises to the level of the window sills on the first
floor. There is a belt course of projecting stonework all the way
around the building between the first and second floors which creates
the appearance of a podium upon which the upper two stories rest. The
center bay on the front facade has an entrance on the ground floor
crowned by a highly decorated hood. On either side of the entrance are
windows with three arched radiating voussoirs. On the second and third
floors the front center bay consists of a decorative, non-functional
loggia with three recessed bays containing windows separated by double
Corinthian columns and flanked on each side by a single Corinthian
column. The columns have decorative capitals and run the length of the
second and third floors. The center window on the second floor is
topped with a projecting pediment. Above the columns is an entablature
with another belt course of stone, a frieze and a cornice with dentils
and modillion blocks. The building is topped with a parapet on the
center bay of the facade. In front of the building is a brick paved
terrace surrounded by a balustrade of decorated stone. The interior
features a rotunda with a stained glass skylight dome and four large
interior murals done by Axel Soderberg of LaCrosse, Wisconsin.[i]
The building was designed by architect Joseph A. Schwarz, who also
designed the Moody County Courthouse, and was built by the A.M. Wold
Construction Co. of Brookings at a cost of $92,000.
History:
Bon Homme County was established by the territorial legislature in 1862
and the county seat was located in the town of Bon Homme, which was the
main community in the area at the time.[ii]
In fact, Bon Homme had come within one vote of being chosen as the
location of the territorial capital. In 1873, a 30 x 50 foot log
courthouse was constructed in Bon Homme at a cost of $3,333. In 1879,
it became apparent that the railroad was not going to go to Bon Homme
and the town began to die. In 1884, the citizens of Tyndall donated
$6,000 for the construction of a courthouse conditioned upon its removal
to their community and that sounded the death knell for Bon Homme.[iii]
The town site of Bon Homme now lies underneath the waters of Lewis and
Clark Lake to the east of Springfield. The courthouse constructed in
Tyndall in 1884 consisted of a square, two-story brick structure at the
same location as the present courthouse. That building served as the
courthouse until the present building was constructed. In 1898, the
county constructed the landmark 100 foot flagpole reproduction of the
Eiffel Tower flagpole at a cost of $200.[iv]
[i]
Bon Homme County History, Herbert Hoover, Ed. (1994) page
80, Carolyn Torma, Building Diversity: A Photographic Survey
of South Dakota Architecture, 1913-1940, South Dakota
Historical Journal 19, pages 161-162 and United States
Department of the Interior, National Park Service, National
Register of Historic Places Registration Form - Bon Homme County
Courthouse (September 10, 1984).
[ii]
SL
1862, ch 12, ยง 1.
[iii]
Bon Homme County History, Herbert Hoover, Ed. (1994) page
30-31.
[iv]
Bon Homme County History, Herbert Hoover, Ed. (1994) page
77.
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