Racine County - American Courthouses

Racine County is named for the Root River with the French word for “root” being “racine”.

Surrounding County Courthouses:

N – Waukesha County and Milwaukee County

E – Lake Michigan

S – Kenosha County

W – Walworth County

Created: December 7, 1836

County Seat:

Racine 1836 – present

County Courthouse – Racine

Location: 730 Wisconsin Avenue / 7th Street

Built: 1930 – 1931

Style: Art Deco / Modern Movement

Architect: John W Root, Jr. and John A Holabird

Contractor: B & W Construction Company

Description: The building faces east and is an eleven story limestone, concrete and copper structure. The building is located on landscaped grounds in the center of Racine. The bold exterior is faced with Bedford limestone, cut by vertical columns of steel framed plate glass windows. The square building is tired and has four corners projecting from the building for three stories. The center entrance doorways project from the building. The roof line is flat. In the interior, the lobby walls are faced with Chiaro marble above Belgian Black colored marble “wainscoting” and Champville marble floors. Statuary bronze doors on the elevators manufactured by Art Metal Company of Jamestown, New York bear figures representing Agriculture and Industry. Bronze medallions set with scales of justice decorate each pair of elevator doors from the second through seventh stories. Images of animals and wheat trim swinging doors at the entrance. There are six courtrooms. A variety of rich woods finish the County Circuit ceremonial courtroom on the fourth story with Austrian Oak and African Mahogany and in the Circuit Court courtroom. There is American Walnut in the former County Court courtrooms and Mexican Mahogany in the Judges rooms, English Oak and California Walnut in the County Board Room, Butternut in the Municipal Court, and Walnut wainscoting in the Information Booth. The building houses the County Circuit Court of the 2nd Judicial Circuit. Restoration was done in 2010. The architect was Engberg Anderson Inc. of Milwaukee and the contractor was Rasch Construction & Engineering of Kenosha.

County Law Enforcement Center – Racine

Location: 717 Wisconsin Avenue / 7th Street

Built: 1980 – 1982

Style: Modern

Architect: Unknown

Contractor: Unknown

Description: The building faces west and is a three story light red colored brick and concrete structure. The building is located on landscaped grounds in the center of Racine east across from the courthouse. In the interior are five County Circuit Court courtrooms. The building houses the County Circuit Court of the 2nd Judicial Circuit. The building is named as the William L McReynolds Law Enforcement Center.

See: The 2nd Judicial District includes Kenosha County and Walworth County.

History: The county was created in 1836 and Racine was selected as the county seat. The first courthouse was a Greek Revival structure built in 1839. The second courthouse was a Second Empire structure designed by H C Koch and constructed by J Bentley & Son 19b 1878, The third and present courthouse was constructed in 1930 to 1931. The County Law Enforcement Center was constructed in 1980 to 1982.