Haskell County Courthouse Explained

Haskell County Courthouse
Coordinates:35.2539°N -95.08°W
Built:1931
Architecture:Art Deco
Added:August 23, 1984
Mpsub:County Courthouses of Oklahoma TR
Refnum:84003061

The Haskell County Courthouse, at 202 E. Main St. in Stigler, Oklahoma, was built in 1931. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

It is a three-story, buff brick building. Its first- and second-story windows have pale green glass bricks. A green marble inset appears above the front doorway.[1]

The Courthouse was the site of a controversy starting in 2004, when the Haskell County Commissioners approved the placement on the county courthouse lawn of an 8-by-3-foot granite Ten Commandments monument. Suit was filed in 2005 by a Haskell County resident and the American Civil Liberties Union, challenging that placement as a government establishment of religion. In June 2009, a unanimous 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a government-sponsored Ten Commandments monument placed on a Courthouse lawn was unconstitutional and had to be removed. In March 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court let the 10th Circuit ruling stand. In the aftermath, the monument was moved from the Courthouse lawn to a spot about a block east on private property belonging to American Legion Post 22, and the County agreed to pay the ACLU $199,000 for attorney fees and all costs.[2]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: [{{NRHP url|id=84003061}} National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Haskell County Courthouse ]. National Park Service. June 18, 2018. With
  2. Web site: Haskell County, ACLU reach settlement over Ten Commandments monument . Althea Peterson, Tulsa World, July 28, 2010. April 30, 2020.