Special to the Iowa City Press-Citizen

The next set of counties (Woodbury, Ida, Sac, Calhoun, Webster, Hamilton, Hardin, Grundy, Black Hawk, Buchanan, Delaware) offered amusing sightseeing diversions. Sac City has the world’s largest popcorn ball, a 9,370-pound giant displayed in its roadside shrine since 2016. But, what made the counties under consideration exceptional was the architectural diversity of the National Register of Historic Places-listed courthouses, featuring several courthouse styles from Romanesque and Beaux-Arts to Prairie School and PWA Moderne.

The Italianate-style Ida County courthouse was constructed in 1883 and replaced an earlier courthouse, which burned down in 1877. The Italianate style was developed in the 19th century as a continuum of Italian Renaissance-ins

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