Washita County Courthouse, County courthouse in New Cordell, Oklahoma, United States
The Washita County Courthouse is a three-story government building completed in 1910 featuring Classical Revival architecture with a copper dome. Two grand entrances with Ionic columns and triangular pediments mark the building's formal design.
Washita County's seat was first at Cloud Chief, designated by Congress in 1892. After Cordell moved to the New Cordell townsite, an election in the late 1890s transferred the seat; the original courthouse was moved in 1900 and Congress legitimized the result in 1904. A 1902 wood-frame courthouse burned in 1909, and the present building rose in 1910.
New Cordell's business district grew around the courthouse after the county seat moved here, so the square became the town's commercial and civic center. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 24, 1984.
The courthouse faces Courthouse Square in New Cordell, with its two main entrances on the east and west sides, each reached by a stairway up to a portico. The surrounding business district grew around the square, so the building is easy to find on foot from the nearby streets.
Solomon Andrew Layton, later the architect of the Oklahoma State Capitol, designed this courthouse with his firm. The copper dome's four clock faces let the surrounding business district read the time from any side.
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