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Photograph of Buchanan County Courthouse
Photograph by Tim Kiser ( w:User:Malepheasant ), CC BY-SA 2.5. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Buchanan County Courthouse and Jail

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.

From the record

“Buchanan County Courthouse is a historic courthouse located at St. It was built in 1873, and is a cruciform plan, Renaissance Revival-style brick building.”

Wikipedia article Buchanan County Courthouse (Missouri), CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 63 National Register listings published here for Buchanan County · listed in 1972 · category: Building.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

  • What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 2 buildingss as contributing to the listing.
  • Address. Courthouse Sq., St. Joseph, 64501
  • When was it listed? August 1972
  • Category. building
  • Township. Washington township
  • National Register reference number. 72001563 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

The ground it stands on

190 words

The chapter on Washington Township in History of Buchanan County and the City of St. Joseph and Representative Citizens : 1826 to 1904, published 1904 names St. Joseph. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.

Some of the early farms in Washington township now form a part of the city of St. Joseph. The following persons are mentioned in history as having settled prior to 1840: John H. Whitehead, William Whitehead, Henr}- \\\ Hanson, James Cochran, Frederick Waymire, William Pugh, Clayborne F. Palmer, A. C. Hyde, Thomas, John and Elisha Sollars. Stephen Parker, Isaac and Michael ^liller, James G. Karnes, Alexander Fudge, Leroy Kauffman, Benjamin Williams, Jacoli (iroschon. Logan Jones, Edward Maxwell, _F)hn H. Cox, Da\id Ewing, William Sallee, Joseph Davis, George Coughern, Michael Rogers, F.

Passage source: History of Buchanan County and the City of St. Joseph and Representative Citizens : 1826 to 1904, published 1904.

Washington township has three justices of the peace and one constable, who are stationed at St. Joseph. There are four post offices in the township, besides St. Joseph - Stock Yards (South St. Joseph), Vories (South Park), Inza (Hyde's Addition) and Saxton.

Passage source: History of Buchanan County and the City of St. Joseph and Representative Citizens : 1826 to 1904, published 1904.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Washington Township - 190 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.

Fires near this property

8 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 8 fires within 5 miles of Buchanan County Courthouse and Jail between 1995 and 2018, burning about 840 acres in total. None started naturally. 1 was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined3
Debris and open burning3
Equipment and vehicle use1
Arson/incendiarism1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
14 September 2017Equipment and vehicle use1.0 acresDoniphan County017-108
26 March 1995Arson/incendiarism1.0 acresMissouri Department of Conservationnot named
16 March 2018Debris and open burning22 acresMissouri Department of Conservation176135-01105-03162018-0200
15 March 2015Missing data/not specified/undetermined400 acresKansas Forest Service28
14 March 2018Debris and open burning15 acresKansas Forest Service2018031
14 March 2015Missing data/not specified/undetermined400 acresKansas Forest Service27
7 January 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMissouri Department of Conservation165953-01180-01072018-1213
14 January 2016Debris and open burningunder an acreKansas Forest Service5

Every fire recorded in Buchanan County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 28 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 28 workings within 5 miles of Buchanan County Courthouse and Jail: 25 past producers, 3 producers. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
St Joseph DredgeSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
UnknownSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
UnknownSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
UnknownSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
UnknownSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
City QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
City Quarry #2Stone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Farmer & Dunn QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Heuemander QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Heumander QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer

Every working recorded in Buchanan County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Photograph PropertyDistance Listed
Wholesale Rowunder 500 feet1977
Central-North Commercial Historic Districtunder 500 feet1991
Buchanan County Courthouse (Boundary Decrease)under 500 feet1978
John D. Richardson Dry Goods Companyunder 500 feet1982
Missouri Valley Trust Company Historic Districtunder 500 feet1975
Edmond Jacques Eckel Houseunder 500 feet1980

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 72001563 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Buchanan CountyAll 63 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

  • Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
  • Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
  • How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
  • Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
  • Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.