Cook County Courthouse (Minnesota)

Cook County Courthouse in Grand Marais, Minnesota, United States, was built in 1911 and designed by architects Anton Werner Lignell and Clyde Wetmore Kelly.[2][3] It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.[1]

Cook County Courthouse
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Cook County Courthouse from the south
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Interactive map showing the location of Cook County Courthouse
Location	411 2nd St., Grand Marais, Minnesota
Coordinates	47°45′8.7″N 90°20′21.5″W
Built	1911
Architect	Kelly & Lignell
Architectural style	Classical Revival
NRHP reference No.	83000902[1]
Added to NRHP	May 09, 1983

When Cook County was first organized, county business was conducted in a trading post on a spit of land that extended into Lake Superior.[4] The first real courthouse building was built in 1889 and was a 24-by-30-foot (7.3 by 9.1 m) two-story frame building. It later received a one-story 20-by-32-foot (6.1 by 9.8 m) addition. The original frame courthouse was seen as "obsolete, limited in space, and far too modest an expression of the county's future," so in 1910, voters authorized the sale of bonds to build a new courthouse. The new building, completed in 1912, was built in the Classical Revival style and features Ionic columns supporting a cornice. It stands on a hill overlooking the city of Grand Marais and Lake Superior.[5]