Nov. 29, 1959. By November 1961, there should be standing on the present site of the antiqued and dilapidated Crittenden County Courthouse a modern structure, the fourth on this location since the county was established in 1842.
Voters at the November 3, 1959 election approved by the overwhelming margin of 2,437 to 624 a $175,000 bond issue for building a new courthouse.
Construction is expected to get under way by mid-spring of 1960. Still to be decided is whether the old building will be razed at the start or the new structure built around the old one and it torn down after the new one is completed.
Crittenden county's first two courthouses were destroyed by fire, the first set fire by Confederate renegades because the courthouse was being used as a barracks by Union soldiers during the Civil War. (All the records were saved, although some people think that we lost those early county records, they were removed before the fire was set.) The second
The second court house fire was accidentally set by a tinner who was repairing the roof and left his hot tar sitting on the wooden shingles.
The third court house, the one being torn down in the pictures was built in 1871, and served the county well until it was torn down in 1961.
The walls came tumbling down on the once beautiful historic old court house in the fall of 1960. Wreckers from the Colonial Brick Company of Mt. Vernon, Indiana. figured it would take about two jerks by a truck to pull the front portion down. Lines were attached to the wall and the truck and work was started. A downpour of rain put a stop to the proceedings, (perhaps saddened to see the old building torn down) and the workers had to finish the razing the next day.
The new modern courthouse was dedicated on December 9, 1961. It is still being used today.
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