Potter County Courthouse

Completed in 1911 and replacing a previous courthouse at this location, Potter County Courthouse has served Gettysburg and the surrounding area for more than 110 years. Its design was influenced by the Renaissance Revival and Classical Revival styles that can be seen in many other South Dakota courthouses. Today, the building houses the County Circuit Court of the 6th Judicial Court and the County Magistrate Court.

Ashmore County was first created in 1873, and in 1877 it was renamed Potter County after Dr. Joel Potter, a legislator from Yankton. Gettysburg was first platted in 1894, and this same year was marked by a bitter battle over which city would become the county seat. The temporary county seat position was given to Forest City, a community about 20 miles from here, but a special election decided that Gettysburg should get this position permanently. The Forest Citians suspected vote fraud, though, and refused to give up the county records. When a constituent of Gettysburg stole the records in a dawn raid on the county offices, the battle for the county seat was effectively over, and plans began to build Potter County's first courthouse.

After receiving a donated lot on what is now the north side of town, county officials hired Robert B. Fisk, a Gettysburg resident, to construct the building. The final product was two stories tall and had a bell tower on the front-center side of the roof. The bell tower was destroyed in an 1892 windstorm, though, and other structural problems doomed the new courthouse. The small town had also outgrown the small first building, so they got to work planning for a larger one, although it would be some time before they could afford to build it.

In 1908, voters finally approved an issuance of $50,000 in 5% bonds to buy a new site and construct a new courthouse building. In 1910, commissioners voted to copy the design new Sanborn County courthouse in Woonsocket, and they hired J.P. Eisentraut, its architect, to work on their new structure. His designs used the Second Renaissance Revival style, with some elements from the Classical Revival school. These were popular designs around the turn of the century for public buildings like this one and can be seen on many other courthouses throughout South Dakota. The building was finally finished in 1911, and today it has served Potter County for more than 110 years and remains in good shape despite its age, thanks in part to a modernization project in the early 1980s.

Potter County, Courthouses. Accessed April 15th, 2023. http://www.courthouses.co/us-states/o-u/south-dakota/potter-county/.

Hufstetler, Mark. Potter County Courthouse, National Park Service. March 1st, 1996. Accessed April 15th, 2023. https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/e0fefc8e-d59a-4999-9f18-b84f51242191/.