The courthouse was completed in 1861 amid a fight between Lansing and Waukon over which community deserved to be the county seat.

Waukon built its own courthouse in the meantime, but it failed to win back the county seat in yet another vote in 1864.

The Iowa Supreme Court decided the county seat battle in favor of Waukon the following year; it has remained there since.

[3] The courthouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places of February 24, 1983.

This article about a property in Allamakee County, Iowa on the National Register of Historic Places is a stub.