What are the Five Oldest Standing Courthouses in Nevada?

 

Belmont Courthouse

   One thing about old courthouses is that they are usually imposing and dignified. It’s clear the architects who designed them wanted them to be very grand yet serious, befitting of a place where justice was handed out.

   That is certainly the case with the five oldest standing courthouses in the state of Nevada. Each may have a different design but all share a similar DNA, which declares them to be important places where important matters—often involving life or death—could be settled.

   While not the first courthouse in the state—that honor most likely would have to go to a two-story, brick courthouse built in Dayton in 1864 (which burned in 1909)—the Douglas County Courthouse in Genoa, built in 1865, has the distinction of being the oldest standing courthouse in the state.

   The Genoa courthouse, which had first floor offices, a courtroom on the second floor and a jail to the rear of the building, was built at a cost of about $20,000, with construction completed in about six months. It served as the county courthouse until 1916, when the county seat was transferred to Minden.

   During the following four decades, the building served as an elementary school. In 1969, it became a local museum, which it remains to this day.

   The second oldest standing courthouse in the state is located in the historic mining town of Austin in central Nevada. Built in 1871, this two-story brick structure served as the Lander County Courthouse until 1979, when the county seat was relocated from Austin to Battle Mountain.

   Like the Genoa courthouse, the first floor of the building served as offices while the second floor housed a courtroom. Despite no longer serving as a courthouse, the building has remained in good shape and continues to serve as county offices.

   Next up on the list of Nevada’s oldest standing courthouses is the so-called Million Dollar Courthouse in Pioche. Constructed in 1871-72, the two-story brick courthouse, which has been stabilized and restored over the years, also had first floor offices, a second-floor courtroom, and jails built to the rear.

   The structure is known as the Million Dollar Courthouse because, according to records, of how it was financed. While the original contract called for the building to cost no more than $26,000, the final cost to taxpayers was more than $800,000 because it was funded by bonds that were refinanced several times during the following decades. It was finally paid off in 1938.

   Perhaps ironically, the year the debt was settled was also the year the county opened a new courthouse and county offices in Pioche, moving out of the original building that was no longer adequate. In subsequent years, the building has become a local museum and community center.

   The fourth oldest courthouse in Nevada is actually located in the central Nevada ghost town of Belmont. Built in 1874 at a cost of $34,000, the Nye County Courthouse was a grand two-story brick structure with an ornate Italianate architecture that included six brick chimneys and a Tuscan-style cupola on top.

   Belmont’s time as the county seat came to an end in 1905, with the rise of the mining boomtown of Tonopah. As the town of Belmont began to decline, the courthouse was eventually abandoned.

   In 1974, the building was deeded to the state of Nevada to become part of the Nevada State Park system, which helped to stabilize and rehabilitate the structure. In 2012, it was turned over to a non-profit group, The Friends of the Belmont Courthouse, which seeks to preserve and protect the site.

   Today, the group provides public tours of the building by appointment (https://belmontcourthouse.com/).

   The final member of the quintet of historic courthouses in the state that have remained standing for almost a century and a half is the Storey County Courthouse in Virginia City.

   Built in 1876, the courthouse, which is made of brick and iron, boasts an elaborate Italianate-style façade made of metal and, according to historian Ron James, “is the most opulent of those built in nineteenth-century Nevada.”

   The courthouse, which remains in use, replaced an earlier building on the same site, the Odd Fellows Hall, which the county had rented for offices and a courthouse. That structure was destroyed during the great fire of 1875, which burned much of the city.

   Perhaps the most talked-about aspect of the Storey County Courthouse is the statue of Lady Justice that is perched above the building entrance.

   Unlike most renditions of Justice, this statue is not blindfolded, which has led many to believe it makes some kind of statement about frontier justice. Historians, however, note that the lack of a blindfold was not all that unusual on Lady Justice statues of the time.

   For more information about Nevada’s historic courthouses, pick up a copy of Ron James’ excellent book, “Temples of Justice,” published in 1994 by the University of Nevada Press.