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1890 Quartzite Courthouse Turned Museum, Named Among the Nation's Most Haunted
200 W 6th St, Sioux Falls, SD 57104
Research updated August 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Admission to the museum is free.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Multi-story historic courthouse with a grand staircase and balcony; check with staff about accessible routes to upper floors.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1890 · National Register of Historic Places · Richardsonian Romanesque Architecture · Minnehaha County Government History
When Minnehaha County broke ground on a new courthouse in 1889, local boosters wanted a building that matched Sioux Falls' ambitions as a growing prairie city. Architect Wallace L. Dow delivered it: a Richardsonian Romanesque courthouse built of rough-cut quartzite quarried locally, with a clock tower, round-arched doorways, and decorative dormers designed, in the style of the era, to project the authority of the law. Completed in 1890, it was reportedly the largest courthouse between Chicago and Denver at the time.
The building served as Minnehaha County's seat of government for 72 years, hosting the county's courts, offices, and records through two world wars and the Depression. By the early 1960s the quartzite courthouse had become too small for a growing county government, and officials moved operations to a new building in 1962. The old courthouse sat vacant and unused for nearly twelve years.
In 1974, the county repurposed the building as a museum rather than demolish it, and it has operated continuously since as the Old Courthouse Museum, now managed by the Siouxland Heritage Museums Alliance alongside the nearby Pettigrew Home. The museum occupies three floors and covers Sioux Falls and Minnehaha County history from territorial days forward. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973, a year ahead of its reopening as a museum, in recognition of its architecture and its role in the city's early civic life.
Sources
The Old Courthouse Museum's reputation rests less on a single dramatic incident than on a long accumulation of small, repeated reports from staff and visitors over the decades the building has operated as a museum. The balcony area comes up most often: people report hearing voices and whispers there with no one else present. Elsewhere in the building, staff describe sudden blasts of cold air that pass as quickly as they arrive, and the sound of footsteps falling down a staircase — followed, when someone runs to check, by an empty stairwell.
One recurring account describes a figure resembling an elderly custodian, seen sweeping the floor of one of the old courtrooms before vanishing. Staff have also reported finding exhibit items moved or rearranged overnight between closing and opening. None of these accounts point to a specific person or documented death tied to the building; they circulate as institutional lore built up across the museum's operating history rather than as claims about a particular former occupant. Regional and national roundups of haunted locations, including coverage naming Minnehaha County's courthouse among the most haunted sites in the country, have kept the reputation current.
Self-guided access to three floors of exhibits on Sioux Falls and Minnehaha County history inside the 1890 quartzite courthouse, including the balcony and courtroom areas most often cited in staff accounts of paranormal activity.
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