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Here’s some advice for all of you could-be courthouse contractors: although top-loading a house with roofing materials may be fine for a suburban ranch, try it at your peril while renovating an old courthouse. You’d hate to suffer the same fate our neighbors down in Brookville did back in 1877!

Here’s the story: in an attempt to address the leaky roof of the 1852 Franklin County Courthouse, workers started stacking heavy building materials atop the flat roof of the structure¹. It proved too much for the twenty-five-year-old building to handle. The rafters buckled, sending their contents -slate, bricks, and several contractors- plunging into the courtroom below, where about twenty people stood in the middle of a trial! It was a miracle that no one died², but the alarming incident shook commissioners and all involved.

The 1852 courthouse, which replaced a brick coffee mill structure built in 18173, was a flat-roofed, Italianate structure. Edwin May designed the building, but alterations after the roof incident meant that very little of his original design remains³. May was responsible for eight more Indiana courthouses outside of Franklin County, but only three others remain today.

The 1852 courthouse, which replaced a brick coffee mill structure built in 18173, was a flat-roofed, Italianate structure designed by Edwin May. May was a prolific architect responsible for nine Indiana courthouses, but little of his original design in Brookville remains⁴: in 1878, its roof was replaced by a triangular pediment supported by five heavy arches, while an enormous clock tower was erected over the new entryway.

The work addressed the building’s structural issues, but wasn’t enough to futureproof it. Officials determined that they needed more space twenty-eight years later and hired Elmer Dunlap -another prolific designer of Indiana courthouses- to study the situation⁵.

Just thirty-seven years old and fresh off a revitalization of the Jackson County Courthouse⁶, Dunlap proposed keeping the core of the courthouse but added substantial wings to its north and south to provide more space. In addition, he reconfigured its windows from Italianate arches to flat rectangles, created a new, recessed entryway supported by two Ionic columns, and replaced the massive tower with a smaller version that better fit the structure⁷.

Elmer Dunlap went on to draw plans for scads of municipal buildings, many of which were additions to public schools. His redesigned Franklin County Courthouse remains the tallest of all his constructs: the Franklin County Courthouse dominates Brookville’s skyline as soon as you curve in from the north on US-52 or IN-101. It’s an enormous building!

Unfortunately, the Franklin County Courthouse again proved too small for the county’s needs as the new millennium approached. Shortly afterward, officials rehabilitated the vacant Brookville High School into a new Franklin County Government Center that now holds the offices of the assessor, auditor, commissioners, recorder, surveyor, and treasurer. Despite the changes, courts are still held in downtown Brookville. Thankfully, they’ve not been subjected to anyone falling through the ceiling in recent years!

It’s a double-win for the preservationist in me that Franklin County continues to utilize its 1852/1877/1912 courthouse while adaptively reusing the old Brookville High School. The courthouse has been listed on the NRHP since 1975 as part of the Brookville Historic District, and its a real landmark in a county full of intriguing history.

TL;DR
Franklin County (pop. 22,951, 66/92)
Brookville (pop. 2,578)
36/92 photographed
Built: 1851, renovated 1878, 1912.
Cost: $96,000 (1878); ($2.38 million in 2016)
Architect: Elmer Dunlap
Style: Neoclassical
Courthouse Square: Shelbyville
Height: 90 feet
Current Use: Courts and some county offices
Photographed: 8/23/15

Sources Cited
1 Atlas of Franklin County, Indiana. (Chicago: J.H. Beers & Company, 1882; reprint Knightstown: The Bookmark, 1976), p.25.
2 August J. Reifel, History of Franklin County, Indiana (Indianapolis: B.F. Bowen & Company, 1915), p. 107.
3 National Register of Historic Places, Brookville Historic District, Brookville, Franklin County, Indiana, National Register # 750000018.
4 Enyart, David. “Franklin County” Indiana County Courthouse Histories. ACPL Genealogy Center, 2010-2018. Web. Retrieved 10/20/19.
5 August J. Reifel, History of Franklin County, Indiana (Indianapolis: B.F. Bowen & Company, 1915), p. 107.
6 “Elmer Edgar Dunlap” Find A Grave. Web. Retrieved 10/20/19.
7 Indiana Landmarks (2013). Franklin County. Indianapolis. Indiana Landmarks. Web. Retrieved 10/20/19.