The Washburn Connection

THE WASHBURN CONNECTION

Kansas has the best courthouses.

These majestic halls of justice are anchors, holding down the state through the blowing of winds, the passing of time, and the changing of laws.

We’re all familiar with the stately 1873 courthouse in Cottonwood Falls.

And I’ve been drawn to other old courthouses, built around 1900, like those in Kingman, Troy and Paola.

I love courthouse squares, especially the ones which lure you onto their grassy moats with statues and benches and gazebos.

Recently in Ottawa, I was struck by the sturdiness and beauty of the 1893 Romanesque Revival Franklin County Courthouse.

It was constructed with bricks from Ottawa Brick and Tile. Limestone in the base came from the Rettiger Quarry in Strong City, the sandstone hauled from Missouri.

A dozen or so steps lead up to a covered porch and the main entrance. Painted trim on the doors and windows is a shade of sage green which adds a pleasant accent to the brick.

The roof has dozens of slopes and angles and includes a 4-sided clock tower and a bell tower.

Atop one of the peaks, front and center, is Lady Justice. Her scales appear to be tethered – good thing, or else those scales would swing wildly in the Kansas winds.

The Franklin County Courthouse square has been encroached on by expansion. There have been two separate buildings constructed on the north side – a jail and the District Court.

But there’s still plenty of grassy moat here. And on one corner of the grounds is a memorial which lists war dead from World War I through the Iraq War. Two names attributed to the current war have been carved into the granite.

In front of the courthouse stands “Buffalo Woman,” a bronze statue placed here in 1989 to commemorate the town’s 125th anniversary.

Two other statues add a historic presence to the square. These figures were carved from standing tree trunks by a sculptor using chainsaws. Off in the back is John Tecumseh “Tauy” Jones, founder of Ottawa University.

In a front corner of the square, the other chainsaw sculpture has no nameplate. Dave and I had been taking photos of this nameless statue and were about to move on when a gentleman from a business across the street walked over to greet us.

“Do you know who that is?” he asked.

“No,” I said, “Do you?”

“Yes, it’s George Washburn,” he replied.

We introduced ourselves and this Ottawa resident, Bruce Prentice, shared information about Mr. Washburn with us. Washburn had been a famous regional architect in the late 1800s and early 1900s and designed this courthouse.

“His office was in the next block,” Prentice told us, saying that Washburn’s name was still printed on an upper level of one of the buildings.

The Carnegie library, now the Ottawa Community Arts Center, just down the street, is another example of the architect’s work, he said.

George Washburn designed 15 courthouses in three states. Ten of his Kansas courthouses are still in use in these counties: Anderson, Atchison, Butler, Chautauqua, Doniphan, Franklin, Harper, Kingman, Miami, and Woodson.

As Dave and I have hop-scotched across the state, I’ve marveled at many old courthouses, but have never taken the time to really study or compare them.

It was a treat to learn that my favorite ones have a connection: George P. Washburn.

Bruce Prentice acted as an Ottawa ambassador, taking time to visit with a couple of strangers. And there’s no one like a local to give you hometown information.

So then, of course, I asked, “Where’s a good place to eat in Ottawa?”

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Cheryl Unruh writes Flyover People, a column about Kansas topics, published every Tuesday in The Emporia Gazette. Copyright 2007 Cheryl Unruh.