The first formal courthouse of Lake County was a wooden building built in Two Harbors in 1887. It served citizens until 1904, when it burned to the ground. Luckily, most county records were rescued.
The courthouse built in 1905 to replace the original courthouse has been called a "sophisticated version of a City Beautiful courthouse." The formally composed academic style building was designed by James Allen MacLeod and built at a cost of $80,000. The low dome, seen in the picture above, has a silvery fish-scale metal helmet.
A mural called "Angel of Justice" once decorated the inside of the dome. Construction crews concealed the mural when a lowered ceiling was installed in the courtroom in 1945. However, the 10 by 15 foot canvas mural, was removed, restored, and placed in the main corridor as a bicentennial project in 1976.
The Lake County Courthouse, seen above in 1906, was built a year prior in Two Harbors, named for its twin harbors of Burlington Bay and Agate Bay.
Historical information adapted from "The First 100 Years... The Minnesota State Bar Association."
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