Craighead County Courthouse

The Craighead County Courthouse is the fifth building on the site to house the county government and is the only notable example of Art Deco construction in Jonesboro. Craighead County and Jonesboro were created in 1859. For a year there was no courthouse, and the house of William Puryear was designated as the temporary county seat. A two-story frame courthouse was built c. 1862, but area hunters protested the site because it meant the loss of excellent duck, turkey, and bear feeding grounds. The courthouse burned in 1869, destroying all county records. A second courthouse was situated in a store west of the square. In 1876, another fire, determined to be arson, destroyed all court records again. The third courthouse, also placed in the lot west of the square, met the same fate when a fire swept the block in 1885. Craighead County citizens decided it would be a good idea to construct a building with fireproof storage vaults in their next courthouse. The two-story building survived a fire in 1889 that destroyed several surrounding Main Street businesses, but it was razed in 1933 for the construction of the current courthouse in 1934. The Craighead County Courthouse was entered on the National Register on September 11, 1998.