Built in 1902 (Neoclassical architecture). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
From the record
“The Grant County Courthouse, built in 1902, is an historic glass-and-copper-domed county courthouse building located at 126 West Main Street in Lancaster, Wisconsin. Koch in the Classical Revival style, it was built of red sandstone.”
Wikipedia article Grant County Courthouse (Wisconsin), CC BY-SA 4.0.
One of 36 National Register listings published here for Grant County · listed in 1978 · category: Building · built in 1902, Neoclassical architecture.
National Register reference number.78000096- 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
34,102 words
The chapter on Lancaster City in History of Grant County, Wisconsin, published 1881 names Lancaster. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.
Within the confines of Lancaster are embraced Townships 4 and 5 north, of Range 3 west of the Fourth Principal Meridian. It is bounded on the north by the west half of Fennimore town, which, with Lancaster, forms the only double town in the county; on the east by Liberty and Ellenboro; on the south by Potosi, and on the west by Beetown and Little Grant. It includes within its borders some of the best farming land in the county, the wealth of the town being rather on the surface than beneath, as has been the case in many other towns.
The site of the present city of Lancaster was originally, before the advent of the white man, a beautifully-rounded knoll, covered with low brush at intervals, through which forest trees, singly or in groves, spread their sheltering branches. At the foot of this knoll bubbled forth a limpid spring, clear as tlie purest crystal, into whose sandy depths, in all probability, many a dusky face had looked, and upon its glittering surface had reflected back the swarthy countenance, hideous with war paint, or stained with the dust and heat of the chase. Past this spring poured a brawling brook, fed by this and lesser neighboring fountains.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 2 fires within 5 miles of Grant County Courthouse
in 2018, burning about 5 acres in total. None started naturally. None 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/undetermined
1
Equipment and vehicle use
1
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
3 workings within 5 miles of Grant County Courthouse: 2 past producers, 1 producer.
1 still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Lancaster, the town this property stands in, in 51 storm reports between 1995 and 2026: 27 thunderstorm wind, 16 hail, 3 flash flood, 2 flood.
The reports record 1 injury. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office
filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date
opens the federal record of that event.
Numerous trees and power lines were blown down from Lancaster to Platteville along State Highway 133. Farm buildings were also severely damaged and homes sustained roof damage from the strong winds.
An estimated 70 mph wind gust occurred in Lancaster. Several barns and outbuildings were blown down and destroyed across the southwest half of Grant County as the line storms moved across. Lots of power lines were also down.
A large tree was uprooted by strong thunderstorm winds. The tree fell on and damaged an outbuilding, while also causing damage to utility lines that were pulled from the ground.
An embankment failure occurred on Highway 35, just west of Highway 81. A substancial amount of debris was reported on the road, with several vehicles stuck in the debris.
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
5 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.
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.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.
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