For some counties, one courthouse just isn’t enough. Although rare elsewhere around Indiana, satellite courthouses are common in the area known as The Region, home to 12% of the state’s population1. In my experience, secondary courthouses tend to be boring, modern structures. Thankfully, the LaPorte County Superior Courthouse in Michigan City is a delightful exception to the rule. It’s old!
LaPorte County was founded in 1832. Michigan City came four years later and served as the northern terminus of The Michigan Road that connected the town to Madison in southern Indiana by way of Indianapolis2. The city’s population eclipsed that of the county seat in 1890, so officials decided to establish a superior courthouse.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: everyone knows that, when comparing the Supreme Court with a regular county court, the Supreme is the one with extra tomatoes and sour cream. Unfortunately, the difference between a county’s circuit and superior courts is a little more esoteric. I understand that, as first ideated, superior courts were “superior” to lower courts with limited jurisdiction. Today, that differentiation has largely fallen by the wayside. Generally speaking, both circuit and superior courts enjoy general jurisdiction across all civil and criminal cases3.
That said, the courthouse in Michigan City takes on any case outside the capacity of the courthouse in LaPorte, thirteen miles to the south. While that landmark structure is unquestionably the focal point of downtown, Michigan City’s is a few blocks north of the downtown strip and a little off the beaten path. Despite that, the courthouse is still a landmark, thanks to the buildings around it, a modern city hall, a modern post office, and an unflinchingly modern library.
Ordered in 1907 and completed in 1909, the courthouse was designed by Fort Wayne architects Guy and Marshall Mahurin4. The 36-foot-tall, L-shaped building originally featured offices on the first floor, courtrooms on the second level, and an auditorium on the third. Although it looked like an addition, a two-story wing that stretched to the south appears to have been part of the building’s original plan and housed Michigan City’s police headquarters5.
The building’s primary entrance faced north for much of its existence. There, modern double doors framed by Ionic columns provided access to the building’s first story. The entryway sat underneath a portico with an arched window capped by a pediment that featured carvings of two guardians who keep watch over Michigan City’s business district.
From the outside, the building’s first floor emphasizes horizontal lines through the channeled coursework of its limestone foundation. Pilasters span its second and third stories and divvy up most of its windows which, regrettably, appear to be contemporary replacements. The secondary faces of the courthouse are five bays wide and feature simplified versions of the same motifs found on its northern side. They’re topped with round, louvered openings framed by the structure’s cross-gabled roof. The overall aesthetic effect is one of strength, stamina, and utility.
Although it’s less imposing than many across Indiana, the building’s details serve it well in a city full of prominent landmarks. The first is the pastoral Michigan City Breakwater lighthouse, a crown jewel5 that has served Great Lakes ships for more than a century. A recent addition to the Michigan City skyline is the 280-foot-tall Blue Chip Casino, the tallest building on Lake Michigan outside of Chicago and Milwaukee6. Finally, visitors can’t help but notice the 350-foot hyperboloid cooling tower of NIPSCO’s coal-fired generating station7!
Michigan City’s superior courthouse is a little harder to find than any of those prominent structures. Given its scale, I thought the building looked more like a library or post office when I visited, which is ironic, I guess, since it looks nothing like either of those buildings just across the street.
Fortunately, the building received a boost in stature in the years since I stopped by: in 2017, the LaPorte County Council gave final approval to a project that doubled the building’s size,. The $21 million project gutted and renovated the original building, allowed it to absorb county offices located elsewhere downtown and provided much-needed ADA access and a secure lobby8. Thankfully, it also replaced the old windows and infills.
I haven’t been back to see it in person, but photos show that the new wing embraces the scale and color of the old courthouse, if not its style. Connected to the main structure by a glass hyphen, the 23,000-square-foot addition extends southward, absorbing the old wing the police department initially used.
Although the new wing isn’t as aesthetically-compatible as recent renovations to courthouses in places like Winchester and Lawrenceburg, I’ve seen much worse. The building’s L-shaped layout and asymmetrical stance on the square set it up perfectly for the expansion, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the new structure served for another century. I hope that’s the case: LaPorte County residents deserve it, and so do fans of historic courthouses!
TL;DR
LaPorte County (pop.111,467, 15/92
Michigan City (pop. 31,494).
Built: 1909
Cost: ?
Architect: Mahurin & Mahurin
Style: Neoclassical
Courthouse Square: No square
Height: 3 stories
Current Use- Some courts
Photographed: 3/19/16
Sources Cited
1 Population Estimates for Indiana Counties, 2010-2015” Stats Indiana. Kelley School of Business. 1985-2018. Web. Retrieved 4/23/18.
2 “Experience fun and history across Indiana on the Michigan Road!” The Historic Michigan Road. Historic Michigan Road Association. 2018. Web. Retrieved 4/23/18.
3 “Indiana Trial Courts: Types of Courts” Indiana Judicial Branch. State of Indiana. 2018. Web. Retrieved 4/23/18.
4 Enyart, David. “Architects” Indiana County Courthouse Histories. ACPL Genealogy Center, 2010-2018. Web. April 23, 2018.
5 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map- Michigan City, Indiana. 1912. Sanborn Fire Insurance Company. Indiana University Libraries. Web. Retrieved 8/28/23.
5 Richards, Rick A. Michigan City’s Love Affair With It’s (sic) Lighthouse July, 2009, Lighthouse Digest. Print.
6 “Blue Chip Casino Spa Blu Tower” Emporis. Emporis GMBH. 2000-2018. Web. Retrieved 4/23/18.
7 Kogan, R. (2005, May 8). Loving landmarks. The Chicago Tribune. Web. Retrieved 8/28/23.
8 “Michigan City Courthouse to expand” February 28, 2018. The South Bend Tribune[South Bend]. Web. Retrieved 4/23/18.
