1888 - Howard County Courthouse - Fayette, MO - Dated Buildings and Cornerstones on Waymarking.com

County of courthouse: Howard County
Location of courthouse: Davis St., Main St., Church St., & Morrison St., center of square, Fayette
Built: AD 1887
Architect: W. F. Schrage
Builder: Sam Baker
Architectural Style: Second Empire

43. Howard County Courthouse, 1887 j W. F. Schrage, architect, Sam B. Baker, builder. Two-story, with tower, brick and limestone Second Empire government building. Irregularly-shaped prominent building features four distinct facades, each with a centered, pedimented pavilion flanked by two-story mansard roof towers. A central, domed clock tower, each facade featuring pediments and wide entablature supported by Composite columns set below a clock set in a molded arch surround, crowns the structure. Each pavilion is embellished with a first story portico supported by Classically-inspired columns; prominent brick pilasters with Corinthian capitals support the denticulated pediment above. Multiple fenestration at the first story level is two/two, single-hung with stone lug sills and stone hood molds with keystones. Second story fenestration is multipaned with stone sills and transom lights set in wide, limestone arches with keystones. Molded water table separates the first and second stories. Rusticated, coursed limestone foundation with wide water table. " ~ NRHP Nomination Form

"The architecture of the Court House has been called 'Second Empire, synthetic, eclectic. II The corner pavilions with mansard roof are Second Empire. The red brick, the hipped roof, the central pavilion with columned portico and gabled pediment--almost Greek Revival in its severity, is Late Georgian and the Cupola is Neoclassical. Each facade is comprised of one side of a square, corner pavilion at either end, and recessed between them and a central projecting pavilion, which has a projecting portico of stone steps and iron columns. Large brick pilasters frame the corner pavilions and the central pavilions on the second story only.
The first story pilasters have Doric caps while those on the second story have decorative, Corinthian-type caps. The rough-cut stone of the foundation delineates the basement heights as do the solid stone subfloors of the porches.
The second story is separated from the first by a broad) simply-molded wooden cornice about midway. Above the modillioned cornice of the roofline, the corner pavilions rise the steep mansard roofs of frame construction covered with slate. The two outer faces of each corner pavilion has a dormer, each topped by decorative railing. Above the cornice of the roofline, the central pavilions have pediments of brick continuations of the walls framed by roofline cornice and gable cornice. Except the two windows of both stories in the recesses of the wider east and west sides, each facade has an equal number of openings equally disposed. There are five windows on the second story, one on each corner pavilion and three on each of the central pavilions. The windows all have wooden sashes with four lights set on sandstone sills, and topped by semicircular transoms, formed by curved caps of sandstone, with keystones. The slate roof is hipped, broken in the center of each side by the gables of the central pavilions. It is topped by a tall cupola of Neoclassical design, of framed construction covered with galvanized iron with embossed designs." ~ Fayette Historic Survey pages 102-108

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