Cottonwood Falls has served as the Chase County seat since the town and county were established in 1859. Its first log cabin courthouse was replaced in 1873 by a stately native limestone and walnut building that remains the oldest Kansas courthouse still in use. John G. Haskell designed it in the French Renaissance style and was also the first architect of the statehouse in Topeka. Cottonwood Falls suffered an early setback when the Santa Fe railroad bypassed it in 1871. A depot two miles north was first called Cottonwood, but in 1881 it and the community around it were renamed Strong City. This twin-city arrangement led to one of the state's first interurban systems. Horsecar service between the two towns began in 1887, with the courthouse square as the southern terminus of the two-mile railroad. In 1918 the company changed to a gasoline-powered motor car, but the track built for horsecars could not support the heavier, faster equipment, and the interurban ended service in 1919.