Maricopa County Courthouse

Downtown Phoenix's 1929 courthouse is really two buildings pretending to be one. Maricopa County and the City of Phoenix built it together, the county half designed by Louisiana architect Edward Neild and the city hall by the local firm Lescher and Mahoney, unified behind a single Neo-Classical and Spanish Colonial Revival face of terra cotta, granite, and red tile. For decades the county courts and city government shared the block, a marriage of convenience in a fast-growing desert capital. It still stands as one of the finest pieces of civic architecture in the Valley.

What the plaque says

The Maricopa County Courthouse was originally built in 1928-1929 by both Maricopa County and the City of Phoenix. The County Courthouse portion of the building was designed by a Louisiana architect. Edward F. Neild. The City chose the Phoenix firm of Lescher and Mahoney to construct a city hall. Although unified in its earlier appearance, the building was designed as two independent buildings in the Neo-Classical and Spanish Colonial Revival styles. The exterior is constructed of terra cotta and poured concrete with bronze and polished granite details and red clay roofing tiles.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Phoenix — steps away
  The fifth-largest US city, built on the canals of a thousand-year-old one
• Heard Museum — 1.6 mi
  The Native Southwest, told in the first person
• Taliesin West — 17 mi
  Frank Lloyd Wright's desert masterwork, grown from the ground it stands on

More markers nearby

• J. W. Walker/Central Arizona Light & Power Building — steps away
• Chambers Transfer & Storage Company Building — 0.3 mi
• Phoenix Newspapers, Inc. — 0.3 mi
• Santa Fe Freight Depot — 0.3 mi