Thurston County Courthouse

Pender, United States

Open to visitors

The interior is normally open, possibly ticketed.

Strollie cannot guarantee access — always check before you travel.

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This Late Victorian courthouse in Pender, Nebraska, was originally constructed as a school in 1895 before being converted to courthouse use in 1927. The conversion, designed by J.F. Reynolds of Sioux City, Iowa, provided the permanent and adequate courtroom space that Thurston County had long lacked. The expansion was prompted partly by fierce rivalry between Pender and the rival town of Walthill during the early 1900s, when the latter mounted legal challenges and a signature petition drive—later exposed as fraudulent—to wrest the county seat away from Pender. The redesigned building settled the dispute by offering proper facilities befitting the county seat, which Pender had remained since Thurston County's establishment in 1889. The courthouse was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.