Like the Lackawanna Valley before it, lower Luzerne County long yearned for political independence from Wilkes-Barre. Efforts to create a new county from parts of the Middle Anthracite fields began in 1889 and continued sporadically into the next century. Thus, Philadelphian Dehoff was charged with designing a building that could easily serve as a courthouse should it be needed. The call never came; today, the abortive courtroom spaces remain inside, but the Beaux-Arts exterior was stripped away in a Moderne renovation.