I was neurotic when I started my courthouse project- I’m shy, and I was afraid of being confronted by someone who saw me as suspicious. I’d read horror stories about real photographers escorted away from government buildings by apprehensive local officials. It took about three years, but it finally happened in LaGrange, Indiana during my second trip there. Sort of.
The LaGrange County Courthouse forms my mental archetype for a courthouse, and it has ever since my dad frequently drove us past it towards his house in Elkhart County. Every time I see a fictional courthouse in a movie or on TV, I instantly compare it to this one. Red brick? Mansard roof? Clock tower? The Hill Valley courthouse from Back to the Future doesn’t have any of that stuff! Courthouses in To Kill a Mockingbird, Bruce Almighty, and Ghost Whisperer don’t make the grade either, since they all used the same set.
Maybe Universal Studios should whisper T.J. Tolan back from the grave to design that area of the backlot. After all, he was responsible for LaGrange’s beautiful courthouse, as well as Rockville’s, Warsaw’s, and at least four others around the midwest. Of his portfolio, the LaGrange County Courthouse stands out due to its unique design, which features four corner pavilions capped with their own mansard roofs and dormer windows.
A low, hipped roof covers the rest of the courthouse, and supports a clock tower that rises 125 feet above the ground and contains the original, 1878 bell and clock works2. I saw all of that as a kid driving past, but never internalized it until I rebooted my project to go to all of Indiana’s historic courthouses back in the summer of 2015. LaGrange County’s was the fifth I poked around, and the oppressive foliage of its square made taking photos of the building a real challenge!
The courthouse I took photos of replaced a frame courthouse in the extinct community of Lima, as well as a second wooden courthouse erected in LaGrange when the county seat moved in 18433. Although it’s predominantly brick, the courthouse has a limestone foundation separated from the walls by a sandstone sill. Only a few, minor, modifications have been made over the years. Exterior entrances to public bathrooms were added on the north and south sides of the courthouse at some point, as well as a small storage area that’s been cribbed to the basement stairs.
Aside from being covered in trees, the courtyard also features a replica of its original bandstand. A decorative iron fence has long since been removed from the square, as has a windmill originally used to provide water the courthouse4.
The entire square is picturesque: brick streets line three sides, and the western edges of the square feature real-life, honest-to-God hitching posts for the county’s vast Amish constituency5. Charming and quaint as it was, I must admit that I was quickly exposed to the practical disadvantages of brick streets used in conjunction with transportation by horse-and-buggy: all those keister cakes have to go somewhere, and that somewhere seemed to be the space between each brick in the street. I’m not sure if tuck-pointing can be done on a road, but it would not have shocked me if Miller’s Food & Drug down the road was out of nasal clothespins.
I took photos of fourteen courthouses the day I went to LaGrange. When I finally got home to review what I’d taken, I realized that I’d only shot twelve of the courthouse itself, which wasn’t a lot to choose from. I also found out that none of my photos documented the building as well as I’d intended to, so I decided that I’d have to go back to both.
It took me a while to do that- three years! I didn’t want to go back and do retakes while there were other courthouses I could see for the first time, but I finally made it back during the waning winter months of 2018. That’s when it happened: suddenly, a voice called out to me from behind. “Beautiful building,” a woman said.
I was a little caught off-guard. I’d been to every historic courthouse in the state by then, and no one had bothered as much as to say hello. I whirled around. “Yeah, it sure is,” I replied.
The curious bystander wasn’t a leery cop or a mistrustful prosecutor: she was a benign old woman out walking her dog. She asked if I was from around there, and I said no, although I mentioned that I’d lived in Elkhart County for a time. I briefly explained my project, but she cut in: “You know who has a really gorgeous courthouse,” she implored. “Van Wert, in Ohio.”
That’s another T.J. Tolan design, and I’d actually been there literally the day before. “I was actually there yesterday,” I said. “The same guy designed both of these.”
She slightly smiled and did a half-nod before she turned around to check on her dog. I have trouble remembering that most people aren’t as enthused about the family tree of midwestern courthouses as I am!
The woman walked off, so I took a minute or so to circle the block and really appreciate the view that the leafless trees offered me of the courthouse. The stories of others might closer fit the geopolitical scheming so common in early state politics, while others might have more interesting stories. Others yet might be more opulent, and still others might truly wallow in their practicality. To me, though, LaGrange County’s courthouse still represents the most archetypical of any found in our state, and it’ll remain my mental model of what a courthouse should look like even if I have to answer an old lady’s questions about it from time to time.
TL;DR
Lagrange County (pop. 37,128, 42/92)
Lagrange (pop. 2,625).
5/92 photographed
Built: 1878
Cost: $71,675 ($1.83 million in 2016)
Architect: Thomas & Brentwood S. Tolan
Style: Georgian/Second Empire
Courthouse Square: Shelbyville Square
Height: 125 feet
Current use: county offices and courts
Photographed 8/15/15 and 2/18/18
Sources Cited
1 Enyart, David. “Architects” Indiana County Courthouse Histories. ACPL Genealogy Center, 2010-2018. Web. July 21, 2018.
2 National Register of Historic Places, LaGrange County Courthouse, LaGrange, LaGrange County, Indiana, National Register # 80000042.
3 Counties of LaGrange and Noble, Indiana: Historical and Biographical. F.A. Battey & Company: Chicago.1882.
4 Ford, Ira. History of Northeast Indiana. The Lewis Publishing Company: Chicago. 1920.
5 “DP03 SELECTED ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS – 2006-2010 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates”. United States Census Bureau. Web. Retrieved July 21, 2018.
