Back Roads

In the spring of 2010 the Todd County courthouse, built in 1883, was put on the Minnesota Preservation Alliance’s list of the Ten Most Endangered Historic Places in Minnesota. It was a reasonable distinction. During the previous two decades, all county offices — from social services to the courts — had migrated out of the building and into new and modern facilities immediately adjacent to the original courthouse. The only things left in the spacious old building were boxes of dusty records and a 911 emergency telephone system.

Outside, standing as a sentinel, a granite obelisk naming local soldiers who died in war during the building’s life time, quietly stood watch.

Next door, in an up-to-date building, the county board of commissioners considered the future of the old building. They had repaired the roof and the windows; but still the building was unusable. The commissioners grew impatient. “Tear it down!” some said. But the county administrator at the time warned them, demolition can be as expensive as construction. He encouraged them to hire an were warned, on the printed ballot, that voting yes would raise their taxes.

Todd County voters did vote to raise their own taxes. They wanted their iconic 130 year-old Court House saved and made useful.

So, over the next several years, the commissioners oversaw everything from repairs to the building’s foundation and historic windows to the design for the lighting in the county commissioners’ board room.

Indeed, the handsome board room was created out of the old courtroom and jury box. The terrazzo flooring and stairwells were restored and preserved and the great tall windows throughout the building were restored and weatherized. The restoration, and its attention to detail, removed the old building from the endangered list; and, on Sept. 27, 2013, gained the citizens of Todd County a Minnesota Preservation Award from the Preservation Alliance. The administrator who shepherded the project to completion has moved on. “I enjoy being surrounded by the history, and seeing the architectural beauty on a daily basis,” Chris

architect experienced with historic restoration. The architect discovered the administrator was on the right track. Restoration would cost just over $4 million. Destruction, the same!

So, not wanting to make a decision of such magnitude on their own, the commissioners decided to put the question to build or not build to a vote in November 2010. Taxpayers Pelzer, the current county coordinator, said.

Pelzer, who has a busy schedule, says she enjoys showing off the building to visitors.

“People always get a kick out of the old safe,” she said