Just as the Missouri's Capitol is the third building of that name, the Cole County Courthouse is in its third generation, too.
Although the second Capitol did not survive a 1911 fire, the third county courthouse was salvaged from its own fire March 14, 1918.
The courthouse also hosted state government twice - the General Assembly in 1837 and the Senate in 1911 - both following Capitol fires, according to the National Register of Historic Places nomination from 1972. The state reciprocated, allowing the county to meet at the statehouse in 1831, after moving the county seat from Marion.
"No other county courthouse has had the honor of providing meeting space for the state senate," the nomination said.
The three-story, limestone structure built about 1897 is a "significant example" of Romanesque Revival-style architecture, which was a common style among Missouri's county courthouses constructed from 1888-1908, the nomination said.
Local architect Frank Miller designed the current courthouse, where the cornerstone was laid July 1896. And local builder Henry Wallau used Carthage stone on the first story and pressed gray brick with copper and stone trim for the second. The clock tower rose 126 feet, featuring four dials and an observation platform.
Following the 1918 fire, which started in the central clock tower and caused the corner pavilions to collapse, new stone was used in the exterior rehabilitation from the first floor up. Louis Schell was contracted to do the rebuild, adhering to the original design.
The basement exterior is Cole County limestone, the first story Carthage limestone and the replacements above are Warrensburg sandstone, the nomination said.
The Cole County court opened following the creation of the county, April 2, 1821, in Marion, then the county seat, in the home of John Inglish. The first act by Cole County judges - John Vivion, James Stark and Jason Harrison - was to divide the infant county into two townships - Moniteau and Moreau, according to the Goodspeed History of Cole County.
At that time, they also gave the first permission for a ferry-boat access to cross the Missouri River and appointed school-land commissioners.
Less than a year later, the first road petition for a line from Marion to Boonville, was made.
The Marion courthouse, completed by James Hayter in May 1823, cost $748. It had three rooms, brick floors, two outside doors and four shuttered windows, according to the Missouri Extension.
Short lived, the last county government meeting at Marion was Feb. 3, 1829.
The first meeting of county government in Jefferson City was at John Gordon's log house March 30, 1829.
The county government-without-a-home was meeting in the state Capitol in February 1831 then it rented the old post office until the second courthouse was completed in 1838.
The county court appropriated $4,000 in May 1835 to build the second courthouse on a lot donated by the state, joined to land purchased by the county. James Dunnica was the first building superintendent for the project, and Thomas Ferguson saw it through to completion.
The second courthouse was built by Thomas Ferguson and Griffith and Crump Company. It was two stories with a stone foundation and hammered stone front wall.
The county clerk's office and vault was at the front of the first floor, where a spiral stairway led to the second, with the courtroom seating 500 in the rear, the Missouri Extension article said. The second floor was left unfinished and rented for special occasions.
The second courthouse's second floor accommodated the General Assembly in 1837, and in June 1840 it became the meeting room of the city's Thespian Society.
Many of the county's earliest notes, bonds and other paper documents were lost in the first Capitol fire, Goodspeed said.
The first floor received a makeover in 1857.
The U.S. District Court was denied use of the room in February 1861, with the county holding out for rent. Use was granted in August 1864.
The second courthouse was condemned about 50 years later. But voters in 1891 defeated a proposition for a replacement. The next year, the grand jury also reported the building "unsafe and dangerous," the Missouri Extension article said.
Voters approved a $60,000 bond issue for the current courthouse in 1895.
The second courthouse was razed in 1896, but part of the local cotton rock from it was reused in the current courthouse.
In addition to the county government offices housed within each of the courthouses, the county circuit court also moved its sessions from site to site.
The first circuit court met Jan. 15, 1821, in the Marion home of John Inglish. Paul Whitley served as sheriff and David Todd as judge. Future Gov. Hambleton Gamble was appointed circuit attorney.
The first grand jury was called the next day when Samuel Burnsides was indicted for assault and battery.
Frequent matters before that early court included horse-stealing, playing faro, ill manners and selling liquor without a license.
Enoch Tobe, who served in Capt. William Coughlan's company of the Continental army from 1775-77 until discharged at Valley Forge, applied to the court for pension in February 1828.
In 1835, the court heard both the first divorce case and the first petition for citizenship for a Canadian couple.
The court sentenced its first hanging after Henry Lane was found guilty of murder in August 1839.
Future Gov. B. Gratz Brown was indicted for challenging Robert Stuart to a duel and fined $100 in 1856. The first embezzlement case came in 1857 when James Porter was found guilty, Goodspeed said.