On a warm afternoon in Manhattan, I stopped by the Riley County Courthouse, and it is one of those Kansas county seats that immediately feels anchored in its own history. Riley County was named for Bennet C. Riley, a Mexican-American War general and former territorial governor of California. Manhattan has been the county seat since 1858 after a disputed election with Ogden was overturned for fraud. The courthouse itself dates to 1906 and was designed by J.C. Holland and Frank C. Squires, who gave it the heavy arches, squat columns, gabled dormers, and tall clock tower that make it a textbook example of Richardsonian Romanesque architecture. Walking up to it, the stone arch entrance and the tower rising above make the building feel both imposing and inviting at the same time, the kind of early-20th-century civic architecture that still carries real presence. Manhattan's name comes from the mid 1850's settlers who hoped to establish a Free-State town and adopted the name from Manhattan, New York reflecting their origins and aspirations. [Review 787 of 2026 - 127 in Kansas - 25968 overall] read more

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