Off Main Street, there are many interesting buildings in downtown Keokuk, the majority in the Italianate style showing the rapid growth of the city after the Civil War.

They are in varying degrees of repair and renovation.

The building below is actually the YWCA.

I suspect the building in the background could easily date from before the Civil War.

The standout is the Lee County Courthouse, which is one of two in the county, the other being in the north at Fort Madison. It is the only county in Iowa with two courthouses.

Built in what I would call a Richardsonian Romanesque Revival, it opened in 1887 and was designed by Mifflin Bell. It is perhaps glaringly obvious but the tower was raised in height in 1890 by two stories, throwing off the proportions of the building.

Originally built as a federal courthouse and post office, it has only been a state courthouse since 1992, with the border between the two halves being an invisible line drawn from the nearby Missouri-Iowa border. Keokuk is actually the southernmost city in the state.