You are here

Arkansas » Delta » Mississippi County » Osceola » Mississippi County Courthouse

Mississippi County Courthouse

-A A +A
1912, John Gainsford. 209 W. Hale Ave.
  • (Photograph by Claudia Shannon)

Osceola sits on the bank of the Mississippi River and was the first of two seats for this county. It was selected in 1833 when Mississippi became a territorial county. Blytheville, farther north, was designated the second seat in 1901, chosen because bad roads made Osceola difficult for many residents to reach. Osceola developed from a steamboat landing below the present-day levee. When the railroad arrived in the 1880s, a few blocks to the west of the early community, the town shifted its center to develop around rail line. Until this courthouse was built in 1912, county business was conducted in several locations in the town. The square-shaped building, with slightly lower flanking wings, is on a raised basement, and its imposing entrance is recessed behind four two-story-high Ionic columns and is reached via a broad and tall flight of steps. The building’s monochromatic exterior of brown brick trimmed with white stone and terra-cotta allows the large copper-colored dome to shine.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Cyrus A. Sutherland with Gregory Herman, Claudia Shannon, Jean Sizemore Jeannie M. Whayne and Contributors
×

Data

What's Nearby

Municipal Building (U.S. Post Office)
Historic Planters Bank (Citizens Bank)
Cox-Florida House

Citation

Cyrus A. Sutherland with Gregory Herman, Claudia Shannon, Jean Sizemore Jeannie M. Whayne and Contributors, "Mississippi County Courthouse", [Osceola, Arkansas], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/AR-01-MS5.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Arkansas

Buildings of Arkansas, Cyrus A. Sutherland and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2018, 234-234.

If SAH Archipedia has been useful to you, please consider supporting it.

SAH Archipedia tells the story of the United States through its buildings, landscapes, and cities. This freely available resource empowers the public with authoritative knowledge that deepens their understanding and appreciation of the built environment. But the Society of Architectural Historians, which created SAH Archipedia with University of Virginia Press, needs your support to maintain the high-caliber research, writing, photography, cartography, editing, design, and programming that make SAH Archipedia a trusted online resource available to all who value the history of place, heritage tourism, and learning.

,