June 18, 2012

Many are familiar with the saga of the Murray County seat struggle that occurred in the county's early days.  Not unlike the struggle for the state's capital in 1857, and countless other counties, Murray County had its own tussle in 1886.

The county began to organize in 1871 and was officially established a year later.  The search for a suitable spot to designate as the county seat began in earnest.  At that time, Currie was the only town in the county so was deemed the most logical spot to set up business as county seat.  And so it was done....until the citizens of Slayton organized a petition to move the county seat to their newly formed town. 

So goes the saga, and the issue went to the voters with the results revealing that Slayton amassed over 200 more votes than Currie.  But the decision was contested by Currie citizens.  what followed was a long, drawn out argument by the people of the county, and led to a proclamation by then governor Andrew R. McGill, naming Slayton as the site for the county seat.  The rest is history as they say.

The town constructed its first court house in 1891.  The Romanesque Revival-style structure was designed by architect Frank Thayer and Leck and McLeod of Minneapolis built it..  The courthouse was completed in 1892 at a cost of $22,300. 

Yellow brick veneer and buff Kasota limestone trim made up the two stories and attic of the 60 by 94 foot building. Its tower featured an unusual classical style, with a segmented dome above a central bay and an arched entry. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Place in 1977.

Long about 1966, county officials began looking at the viability of the then 80-year old structure.  The building was officially deemed unfit in 1971 because of poor acoustics  fire hazards, poor ventilation  lack of conference rooms and toilet facilities and no room for court reporters...and the wheels of progress were put into place as they sought a voter-approved $800,000 bond to build a new courthouse. 

The original plan for the new courthouse was to construct a two-story structure where elected officials occupied the first floor offices and the courtroom was on the second floor.  

Plans also called for a large outdoor entrance plaza for public assemblies.  With a concrete frame, concrete roof, enclosed fire resistant stairways, fire resistant vaults for county records and modern oil burning boilers, the building promised to be state of the art.  All of this was to cost $753,000, by 1967 cost standards.  two  years later those costs went up to $904,000. 

Razing the building on September 26, 1981, took nearly six hours. Spectators lined the south end of Broadway Avenue to witness history - as the building stubbornly yielded to the destruction efforts.

Eventually the tower and walls came down - a piece of county history that had stood sentry over the town's main business district for almost 100 years, was all but a memory.

 The new, 12,000 square feet was built of steel, concrete, and brick veneer designed by the Delpro Corporation of Sioux Falls at a cost of $1 million was built to replace the old courthouse. 

County commissioners, not entirely satisfied with the design, asked for a "more monumental appearance" and settled for a triangular canopy above the roof.  Thus was born the courthouse that today serves the citizens of Murray County.