The location and unique architecture of this building caught our attention as we were driving North on Robert Bush Drive West in South Bend, Washington. Seeing the copper clad dome, I wondered if the inside of the dome was opened to viewing and if so, whether is was sufficiently decorated to justify submitting a waymark under this category. I was pleasantly surprised to see the geometrical patterns and the yellow and green symmetrical lines as I gazed upward. This building is outstanding and the dome ties the different parts together. That it was built in 1910 and is still being used as a public building is a testament to the architect, the builders and quality of the material used. Having been restored in 1980, the dome can be viewed by anyone inclined to stop and take a look at the dome as well as the building that was once described as the "the gilded palace of extravagance".
The following information relative to the Pacific County Courthouse, including its dome, can be found at the following website: (
visit link)
"Captain Robert Gray landed at the ancient Indian Village of Chinookville on the north shore of the Columbia River in 1792 on the southern edge of what was to become Pacific County. Lewis and Clark camped in the same area and saw the Pacific Ocean from Cape Disappointment in 1805.
Pacific County was established by the Oregon Territorial legislature on February 3, 1851. It was the third county created north of the Columbia River. Lewis and Clark were the first two counties.
The first county seat was located at Pacific City on Cape Disappointment. On February 26, 1852, the Federal Government set aside 640 acres on the cape (including Pacific City) for a military reservation. The occupants of the town were ordered to vacate.
The activities of the County government were then transferred to Chinookville in 1852. County Commissioner sessions were held there until March 1855 when meetings were held at Holman's Schoolhouse on Baker's Bay. The schoolhouse was located near the present town of Ilwaco.
A vote of the electorate in May 1855 officially designated the settlement of Oysterville as the new county seat. Oysterville was first settled by R.H. Espy and I.A. Clark in 1854. They were attracted to the location by the abundance of oysters. For nearly two decades the County Commissioners held their sessions in whatever building was available. A courthouse was finally erected there in 1875 and served for nearly eighteen years until the county seat was moved to South Bend.
In 1889 promoters came to South Bend and boomed the community. Advertised as 'The Baltimore of the Pacific', South Bend grew in population and soon demanded a vote to move the county seat. A vote was taken in 1892 designating South Bend as the county seat, but it resulted in a lawsuit which temporarily delayed moving day. South Benders, agitated by the apparent reluctance of County officials, took two steamers to Oysterville and forcibly moved the records in 1893.
The first building to serve as a courthouse in South Bend was the Bristol and Leonard building on Water Street. The old brick office building held county offices for nearly a year.
Around 1894 the Northern Land and Development Company contributed a block of land on Quincy Street for an official courthouse building. City fathers pledged $5,000 and a wood-frame building was erected by W.B. Murdock. The building served as the County Courthouse until 1910 when it was outgrown and the new town of Raymond made noises about moving the county records there. The County Commissioners stopped the talking by making plans for a new building in South Bend on Quality Hill.
The present Courthouse, dubbed 'The Gilded Palace of Extravagance', was designed by C. Lewis Wilson and Company of Chehalis, Washington, under the direction of County Commissioners John R. Goutler, Ray Wheaton, and Howard M. Wilson in 1909.
The first bids for construction were opened in August of 1909, and a local contractor bid $87,730. He was to be given the job until he discovered that he had made error of $10,000 in his estimate. Because of the error, the total cost of the building was found to exceed the limit the Commissioners had allowed for construction. The bid was withdrawn, and the Commissioners revised the plans and issued a call for new bids.
The new bids were based on the original design submitted by Wilson with a few alternations. The exterior remained the same but interior marble and other costly materials were eliminated. Later (in the 1940s) the Commissioners made up for the lack of interior detail by assigning a County jail inmate, who happened to be an artist, the task of painting the panels in the foyer with scenes from the early history of the County. He also painted the cement columns on the second floor of the rotunda to look like marble. At a distance, visitors still mistake the fake marbling for the real thing.
The contract for the construction work was finally awarded to the Northwest Bridge Company of Portland, Oregon, in 1910. The contract called for a completed building by October 1, 1910. The building was not ready until June 20, 1911. The final cost, art glass dome included, added up to $132,000.
The Courthouse has undergone minor remodeling during its history but essentially remains unchanged from the day it was built. The one exception was the cleaning and restoration of the art glass dome. Seventy years of accumulated dust and deteriorating soldering were finally ordered repaired in the spring of 1980. The price tag was $144,700, nearly $13,000 more than the cost of constructing the whole building in 1910.
Construction for a new Public Safety Building (also known as the County Jail) was the most recent capital improvement project on the Courthouse grounds. Work started in September 1983 and was completed in 1985.
The fascinating County Courthouse story is just one of the many in the wild and wonderful history of Pacific County."