Courtesy of Matt Liverani
Welcome to another installment of White Pine: Then & Now!
In this week’s edition we are once again back in downtown Ely taking yet another look at the county courthouse. The concrete building was completed in 1908 replacing an earlier wooden structure which can be seen to the left of the new courthouse. One thing I noticed when looking at this one is that the rear of the courthouse, which as memory serves was the county jail at the time, was not two stories as the main courthouse was. The additional floor was added sometime before 1931 as it can be seen in my last courthouse comparison.
The current photo, taken April 15, 2025, shows us how much the courthouse grounds have changed in the 114 years since the original building opened. The biggest change is the building no longer functions as the courthouse since being replaced by the new Ely Justice Center, which opened in 2021. You can also see the additional floor on the rear portion of the building as well as a couple windows that have been blanked out on the original wall. The building is still in use by a few county offices such as the County Recorder and the Treasurer.
Leave a Reply