Jasper County Courthouse, East Third and South Main Street

Constructed in 1894-95, the Jasper County Courthouse is located in Carthage, Missouri in the town's center square. It was designed by M.A. Orlopp in the Richardsonian Romanesque style. It is the third courthouse of the county. The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. Its first floor lobby area houses historical displays, murals painted by local artists, and a Route 66 exhibit modeled after Boots Drive-In (see Clio entry for same on South Garrison Avenue).

Jasper County's roots go back to 1841 when the county government was established in a log structure in an early village called Jasper (not location of current town of Jasper, MO). Carthage was chosen as the county seat a year later and a two-story brick building was constructed in 1851. It served as a hospital during the Civil War and fire destroyed it in 1863. The county government used other buildings around the courthouse square in the following decades until  the current one was opened in 1895.

The building is constructed of local limestone. At the time of the courthouse's construction, there were many quarries surrounding Carthage. Carthage Stone Company, owned by Curtis Wright and William Logan (1), supplied the stone for this structure. (See Clio entries for Wright House, 304 West Macon, and Logan Building, 301 East Fourth),  

Hansford, Michele Newton.  Images of America: Carthage Missouri. Charleston SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2000. (1)

"History." http://www.jaspercounty.org/history.html. Retrieved 4-23-15.