of commissioners approved the building on December 12, 1902; the court held its first session in the space on January 3, 1903. Later history When the building first opened, visitors reached the courtroom via a double flight of stairs. The courtroom, which had covered half of the third floor, was remodeled and condensed to make space for offices in 1937. The space on the cupola intended for a clock served instead as an open-sky observation point during the Cold War. During the 1950s, volunteers stationed there watched for uncharted planes entering Bemidji airspace. This area was later glassed in. In 1971, county auditor Wayne Alsop noticed a staircase inside the courthouse leading to an attic. Inside it, he and Jay Griggs discovered artifacts and written records, including tax books dating to 1897, underneath rafters more than ten inches thick. They also found the scales originally held by the statue of Justice, which had fallen down during a 1971 storm and been moved to the attic for storage. Construction of a large annex began in June 1973 and ended in July 1974. The finished structure housed two courtrooms on its first floor, and court personnel moved from the old courthouse to the annex in July 1974. In 1976 the county remodeled the old courtroom into office space. On December 13, 1977, one day after the courthouse celebrated its diamond jubilee, the board of commissioners received bids for a complete remodeling at an anticipated price of $425,000 (). The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 16, 1988. Thanks to a $20,000 matching grant from the Minnesota Historical Society, it was renovated in 2000. The grant money funded the restoration of the stairs, pillars, and retaining walls at the building's east entrance. See also List of county courthouses in Minnesota National Register of Historic Places listings in Beltrami County, Minnesota References External links Beltrami County District Court Beltrami County Historic Courthouse 1902 establishments in Minnesota Beaux-Arts architecture in Minnesota Bemidji, Minnesota Buildings and structures in Beltrami County, Minnesota County courthouses in Minnesota Courthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota Government buildings completed in 1902 National Register of Historic Places in Beltrami County, Minnesota