The Stearns County Courthouse was built in 1922 featuring a Neoclassical design with a façade and pillars of granite from Cold Spring, Minnesota. It replaced an earlier courthouse from 1864. The judicial building is located in St. Cloud, the state’s tenth largest city with about 65,000 residents. The county’s original name was Stevens, a tribute to the first governor of Washington Territory. He took office in 1853. It was renamed for Charles Thomas Stearns. This politician helped establish the county when Minnesota became a state in 1858.
