Boulder County Courthouse

The Boulder County Courthouse is a historic building on Pearl Street in Boulder, Colorado, built in 1933. The courthouse is a contributing property to the Downtown Boulder Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. In 2018, additional information about the building was added to the documentation of the district.^[2]

Boulder County Courthouse
U.S. Historic district Contributing property
Boulder County Courthouse, built 1933
Show map of Colorado Show map of the United States
Location	1300 Pearl, Boulder, Colorado
Coordinates	40°1′5.52″N 105°16′41.16″W
Built	1933
Architect	Glen H. Huntington[1]
Architectural style	WPA Moderne
Part of	Downtown Boulder Historic District (ID80000878)
Designated CP	December 3, 1980

History

The original courthouse was built in 1882 by F.E. Edbrooke, but was destroyed by a fire in 1932. The present courthouse was re-built on the same site in the following year.^[3] It is a five-story building designed by architect Glen H. Huntington, son of prolific Denver architect Glen Wood Huntington,^[1] in WPA Moderne style (a restrained form of Art Deco architecture). It features vertical lines, a tower, and little ornamentation.^[4]

The courthouse no longer houses the actual courts for Boulder County, but it remains the seat of county government.

It was one of the first courthouses in the US to issue same-sex marriage licenses in 1975, when Boulder County clerk Clela Rorex issued licenses to 6 same-sex couples.^[3]

In 1980, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as one of 125 contributing buildings in the Downtown Boulder Historic District.^[4][5]

In 2018, the historic district's official documentation was updated "to recognize an additional area of significance of Social History for the Boulder County Courthouse, as well as the district generally, for association with the first same-sex marriage licenses issued in Colorado and the civil rights struggles of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) people."^[6][7]

References

1. Thomas J. Noel (July 16, 2018). "Boulder County Courthouse". SAH Archipedia. Retrieved October 26, 2022.
2. Brennan, Charlie (July 31, 2018). "Boulder County Courthouse gets federal nod for role in state's LGBTQ history". Boulder Daily Camera. Retrieved October 19, 2022.
3. Hooper, Lydia (October 24, 2018). "Why Boulder County Courthouse is recognized for its role in LGBTQ history". www.historycolorado.org. Retrieved October 19, 2022.
4. Susan Baldwin (December 1978). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Downtown Boulder Historic District / Downtown Boulder". National Park Service. Retrieved June 1, 2021., a 187-page PDF. With accompanying 30 photos from 1979, with photos of the courthouse's exterior on pages 31 and 35 of 60-page PDF. Includes Additional Documentation from 2018 on pages 102-118 of 187-page text PDF. Note that NARA's version of NRHP nomination, a 166-page PDF, includes 1978 text and photos but not 2018 AD.
5. "Boulder Downtown Historic District". History Colorado. Retrieved October 25, 2021.
6. Erika Warzel; Astrid Liverman; Anthony Wiese IV (2018). "Additional documentation for Downtown Boulder Historic District". National Park Service. Retrieved October 25, 2022. Additional documentation from 2018, signed, is pages 102-118 within 187-page PDF which is otherwise the 1978 nomination of the HD.
7. Erika Warzel; Astrid Liverman; Anthony Wiese IV (2018). "Boulder County Courthouse (NRIS 80000878, 5BL.1553), 1300/1325 Pearl Street, Boulder: Additional Documentation" (PDF). pp. 74–88. Retrieved October 25, 2022. This additional documentation in unsigned but possibly final draft version of AD was included as the last 15 pages of 88-page agenda packet for the May 18, 2018 meeting of the Colorado State Register Review Board.