In times of political polarization and calculated discord like these, it’s nice to remember a simpler era when parties could occasionally join forces for the common good. In a “rare display of public unity1,” Democratic and Republican commissioners of St. Joseph County came together to approve plans for a new satellite courthouse in Mishawaka more than forty years ago. One official said their effort was the first display of partisan partnership ever, aside from the occasional heart fund or blood bank campaign.
A decade earlier, commissioners funded an $8.9 million project to dramatically alter the skyline of downtown South Bend, the county seat. Most of the money went towards constructing a 14-story County-City Building adjacent to the courthouse to contain all city and county offices. The rest of the cash, around a million dollars, was held back to update and expand the interior of South Bend’s historic courthouse to support a much larger superior court structure based on a law anticipated to take effect in 19722.
The County-City Building briefly served as the St. Joseph County Courthouse as its 70-year-old predecessor was being reconfigured, but it was clear that the county needed even more space. Officials decided to serve Penn, Harris, and Madison Townships by putting another courthouse there3. It took some time, but the concept finally grew to warrant a plan by the final ebb of the 1970s.
Architects Donlon-Lofgren-Maenhot & Associates recommended a two-story building with a courtroom, judge’s chambers, and other rooms on the second floor and county and township administrative offices on the first. A basement featured a vault, small snack shop, and mechanical area4.
The architects included plans for a spacious lobby to handle traffic on election day, and the overall idea was to eventually provide the same level and quality of services as those that could be obtained by venturing to downtown South Bend5, despite newspaper articles that referred to the planned building as a “sub-courthouse6.” Another hope was that the increased traffic would help reinvigorate Mishawaka’s flailing downtown.
It sounded like the perfect plan! Unfortunately, there was a catch: money. Officials couldn’t come up with the cash to spring the courthouse into reality until 19797! A million dollars was enough for a scaled-down courthouse 25% smaller than the original plan, albeit one that was strong enough to bear a future third story if ever needed8. Construction bids opened up in April of that year.
Work proceeded as planned until a fateful day in August of 1980 when officials realized that the courthouse -nearly-completed and meant to use gas to heat it- was equipped for electric heating and that the budget would call for more than twice the money to heat the new building as it did to heat the drafty 1898 courthouse in South Bend which was several times larger9. Its architects justified the change to livid officials as not being drastic enough to warrant review, and the extra costs were eventually found to include other utility systems. A review of the contract’s terms also specified that the heat be only “energy efficient10”, a vague enough stipulation to leave room for architectural improvisation.
That cooled the temperature down! But with some final drama, the St. Joseph County Superior Courthouse in Mishawaka, simply known now as the County Services Building, was complete. It opened later that year.
Despite the last-minute drama, the St. Joseph County Superior Courthouse in Mishawaka, known now as the County Services Building, was completed in 1980. Architecturally, the building is nondescript aside from a large Indiana seal mounted to the side of the building’s main entrance. The buff-colored courthouse is six bays wide with recessed, rectangular windows. Projections at the northwest and southeast corners house stairways, and the rear of the building features a small, landscaped courtyard of shrubbery and red mulch.
To me, the building resembles the type of academic hall you’d find at a commuter school, which makes sense knowing that its architects designed Clay Junior High School in South Bend, an addition to the Emmons School in Mishawaka, and the public library in nearby Wakarusa. Portions of Clay strongly resemble the courthouse, as does the library. The group’s 1970 addition to the old St. Joseph Hospital in downtown Mishawaka doesn’t make itself apparent enough for comparison to the courthouse aside from the use of dark brick.
I love Indiana’s historic courthouses, but I’m also on record for appreciating our modern courthouses. The County Services Building in Mishawaka may not match the monumentality of superior courthouses in Lake or LaPorte counties, but we Hoosiers are a welcoming bunch. I’m glad the St. Joseph County Courthouse is part of our portfolio. Merchants in downtown Mishawaka probably are too.
TL;DR
St. Joseph County (pop.363,014, 5/92)
Mishawaka (pop. 49.931)
Built: 1980
Cost: $1 million ($2.9 million in 2016)
Architect: Donlon-Lofgren-Maenhot & Associates Style: Modern
Courthouse Square: No square
Height: 2 stories
Current Use: Some county courts and offices
Photographed: May 26, 2020.
Sources Cited
1 “Parties join to back courthouse” The South Bend Tribune [South Bend]. Sept 1 1977. Page 30. Print.
2 “Courthouse Remodeling to Be Finished in Spring” The South Bend Tribune [South Bend]. November 15, 1970. 32. Print.
3 “Mishawaka Courthouse” The South Bend Tribune [South Bend]. February 18, 1978. Print.
4 “Court plans pleasing” The South Bend Tribune [South Bend]. June 21 1977. Page 25. Print.
5 “Same services goal for annex” The South Bend Tribune [South Bend]. September 8, 1080. Page 28. Print.
6 “Sub courthouse plans need $700,000 loan” The South Bend Tribune [South Bend]. April 10, 1977. Print.
7 “Ferrettie to discuss courthouse annex” The South Bend Tribune [South Bend]. April 19 1979. Page 48.
8 “Ferrettie defends scaled-down plans” The South Bend Tribune [South Bend]. February 27, 1979. Page 23. Print.
9 “Heat switched” The South Bend Tribune [South Bend]. August 23, 1980. Page 4. Print.
10 “Electric heating wasn’t a ‘change’: Architects” The South Bend Tribune [South Bend]. Aug 28 1980.
11 “Architects Add Partner” The South Bend Tribune [South Bend]. February 16, 1975. Page 30. Print.
