Sedgwick County Courthouse
Sedgwick County
Constructed by the Works Progress Administration between 1938 and 1939, the courthouse represents federal New Deal relief programs at work in eastern Colorado during the Great Depression. The county commissioners took advantage of the WPA program to match county funds toward the construction of a new courthouse to replace a 1904 facility. The building is an excellent example of the WPA Art Deco style applied to a government building whose construction was constrained by the economic conditions of the Depression.
Sedgwick County Courthouse (1998 photograph.)
Designed by Denver architects W. Gordon Jamieson and R. Ewing Stiffler, its Art Deco elements include the vertical emphasis with a stepped facade and the stylized decoration of floral patterns and sunrises on the terra cotta tiles. Essential to the governing of the county, the building has continuously served as the courthouse and jail since 1939. The property is associated with the New Deal Resources in Eastern Colorado Multiple Property Submission.