{"nrhp_refnum":"72000844","name":"Herkimer County Courthouse","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"320 N. Main St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Herkimer","county":"Herkimer County","state":"NY","lat":43.029068077000034,"lon":-74.98892161799995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1972-01-14","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Literature","Law"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A three-story brick county courthouse at 320 North Main Street in Herkimer, New York, with an octagonal tower and wood framing, built in the 19th century.","why_significant":"The nomination points to the building's largely unchanged exterior at an important intersection in Herkimer. It also cites two notable court cases decided there: the death sentence of Roxalina Druse, the only woman hanged in New York State, and the 1906 trial of Chester Gillette, which inspired An American Tragedy.","narrative":"Herkimer County Courthouse is a three-story brick building with a high basement at 320 North Main Street in Herkimer, New York. Painted brick walls rise above stone foundations on a wood frame. Round-arched windows have brick lintels with stone keys, and a wide wooden cornice with dentils runs beneath the roofs. A one-bay entrance porch with square columns joined by arches fronts the west facade, and an octagonal tower with arched openings and a mansard roof rises above. The exterior remains virtually unchanged, though the interior was subdivided and remodeled in 1936 as a Works Projects Administration project. The courthouse occupies an important intersection in the city. Its significance rests partly on its architecture and partly on two court cases. Roxalina Druse was sentenced to death by hanging here, the only woman in New York State to meet that fate. In 1906 the trial of Chester Gillette was held in the building, a murder case that formed the background for Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy.","period_of_significance":"19th Century (specific date 1873)","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition listed as fair and altered; interior subdivided and remodeled in 1936 as a Works Projects Administration project; used as a government building and occupied.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:39.962817-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/72000844.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/72000844/e778965896-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/72000844/e778965896-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 2.0","author":"Doug Kerr from Upstate New York","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Herkimer_County_Courthouse_Sept_09.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Doug Kerr from Upstate New York</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 2.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Herkimer_County_Courthouse_Sept_09.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75318138","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herkimer_County_Courthouse","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5739248"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/herkimer-county/herkimer-county-courthouse-72000844/"}