Courthouse also gets improvements

The courthouse will have a cleaner exterior and safer entryways now that a Fort Scott company has finished restoration of portions of the west and north sides.

Leland Hull, foreman for Mid- Continental Restoration, said he was impressed with the workmanship that went into the courthouse in 1906.

Builders did not have access to construction equipment available today. Getting large, heavy blocks to the height of the courthouse clock tower was quite a feat, he said. The courthouse’s carved limestone faces also impress him.

A team of three workers power-washed away mold that had formed on the surface of limestone blocks around the north and west entries and replaced mortar between blocks.

Two crumbling limestone blocks at the bottom of stairways were replaced with blocks cut to match the courthouse’s existing blocks.

Nonslip coating was applied to stairways leading to doors.

“The steps themselves were just in sorrowful shape,” Hull said.