Alpena County Courthouse , Winter-Built Art Deco

The Alpena County Courthouse, completed in the mid nineteen thirties, proved something people in northern Michigan did not believe was possible: you can pour concrete in winter. Architect William Kuni of Detroit designed the Art Deco structure and called it the first monolithic building erected in a cold climate. Funded by local bonds and a Public Works Administration grant, the project provided Depression-era employment during months when construction in Alpena typically stopped.

The interior lives up to the exterior ambition: chevron and zigzag motifs in the vestibule, a terrazzo floor inlaid with geometric patterns, an aluminum staircase with travertine marble treads, and an art-glass window at the landing. The courtroom is trimmed in walnut. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the courthouse is both a civic landmark and a monument to a moment when getting people back to work mattered more than the season.