Second Pinal County Courthouse, Victorian courthouse in Florence, Arizona.
The Second Pinal County Courthouse is a three-story redbrick building at Pinal and 12th streets in Florence, Arizona, designed by James M. Creighton in the Late Victorian Revival style. It is topped by an ornate clock tower whose clockworks were never installed; instead a clock was painted on it with the hands set at 11:44. Two-story additions at the northwest and southwest corners in 1917 turned the cruciform plan into a T shape.
Built in 1891 by architect James M. Creighton, the courthouse served as Pinal County's judicial center until 1961, witnessing notable trials including that of stagecoach robber Pearl Hart in 1899.
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, the courthouse represents Arizona's territorial period and stands as a symbol of law and order in the developing American Southwest.
The building stands at Pinal and 12th streets in Florence, on a cruciform plan extended in 1917 into a T shape by two-story additions at the northwest and southwest corners. It was closed in 2005 and declared one of Arizona's most endangered historic buildings in 2007; in January 2011 the county supervisors approved a renovation plan so county entities could use it again.
The courthouse features a painted clock face instead of functional clockwork due to insufficient construction funds, creating a permanent time display that has become a distinctive architectural element.
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