Wallowa County Courthouse

About this property

The Wallowa County Courthouse is the seat of government for Wallowa County in northeastern Oregon. The courthouse is located in Enterprise, Oregon. It was built in 1909–1910 using locally quarried stone. It is a massive High Victorian structure built of local Bowlby stone. The courthouse was listed on National Register of Historic Places in 2000. Today, the courthouse still houses Wallowa County government offices. Wallowa County is located in the northeastern corner of Oregon. It is bordered by Union and Umatilla counties to the west, Union and Baker counties to the south, the state of Washington on the north, and Idaho to the east. The county is bordered geographically by the Wallowa Mountains on the south and west, the Grande Ronde River canyon on the north, and the Snake River and Hells Canyon on the east. The first post office in the Wallowa Valley was established in 1874. The first town in the area was Lostine, which was founded in 1875. The town of Joseph was established in 1879. Wallowa County was formally separated from Union County in February 1887, the same year the town of Enterprise was founded. When the county was first formed, Joseph became the interim county seat. However, Enterprise was selected as the permanent county seat of Wallowa County in 1888. Originally, the Wallowa County government rented office space on the second floor of a building on Main Street in Enterprise. In 1898, citizens proposed building a courthouse, but county officials decided it was cheaper to continue renting office space. A decade later, county officials finally decided to build a permanent court building to house county offices. Local citizens contribute $5,000 for construction of the courthouse, but refused to pay until construction reached the second story, ensuring that the courthouse would actually be built as promised by county officials. The contributors also insisted that the total cost of the courthouse be at least $25,000 to ensure the structure would be a well-built landmark for the community. The courthouse was designed by Calvin R. Thornton, an architect from La Grande, Oregon. The construction contract was won by S. R. Haworth for $31,300. Haworth began work on the building in January 1909. The plumbing and heating work was done under a separate sub-contractor, costing an additional $4,592. Thornton moved to Enterprise to supervise to the courthouse construction. However, he was killed in December 1909 when he fell from a scaffold at another job site in Enterprise. As a result, he never saw the finished courthouse. In March 1910, a local furniture company was awarded a $3,183 contract to provide furniture, counters, and bar railings to finish the courthouse. The courthouse opened for business on 5 January 1910. However, construction was not actually completed until May of that year.

Location

Categories

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

More in Wallowa County

Historic places, battles, and census history across Wallowa County.

More historic places in Oregon

Browse all historic places in Oregon.

Conflict records

Explore 19,000+ military engagements across American history.

Oregon history

Colonial settlement, territorial period, and statehood narrative.