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Not many know it, but future president Abraham Lincoln studied law in Boonville, Indiana. In those days, the Lincoln family homestead was considered part of Warrick County, and Lincoln often walked the twenty-mile trip from his childhood home to study the law and watch local attorneys practice in a succession of poorly-built wooden courthouses. If he’d lived to be a hundred, Honest Abe would have found a real gem.

Like many in Indiana, Warrick County has an fascinating history. Counties delineated during Indiana’s territorial days were massive, and Warrick was originally part of Knox. Their centers are more than forty miles away! The area split off in 1814, and an early iteration of Evansville was chosen to become county seat.

Local officials changed their mind, though, and the community of Darlington was set up to replace it by the following year. It was soon abandoned, but a log courthouse -the county’s first- sat there for nearly a hundred years. Today, nothing remains from the old town aside from Darlington Road, which extends east from Newburgh¹.

Boonville was platted in 1818 and initially consisted of twenty-five square blocks. Named after Indiana’s second governor, Ratliff Boon, it only took a year for the town to grow into the largest community in what’s now Warrick County². Early officials wanted to be able to travel to Evansville and Newburgh within a day, so the settlement was named county seat³.

Despite its newfound status, Boonville struggled during its earliest years. The first courthouse in town was a “small and rudely constructed⁴” log building that wasn’t much better than the one officials abandoned in Darlington. Commissioners intended to replace it with a brick building in 1829, but lacked the funds to do it, so they attempted to complete another cheap wooden building instead⁵.

The prospective second courthouse was the last Lincoln went to as a kid. Unfortunately, it was never completed- the building was weatherboarded and roofed, but it wasn’t lathed or plastered. Officials were only able to use it during the summer! Thankfully, they scavenged enough money to build a third courthouse by 1836. A two-story brick building with a hipped roof and cupola, it was similar to courthouses still standing in Rome or Wilmington.

Boonville eventually achieved prosperity thanks to the quality of its farms⁵, and a 60 x 44 foot fifth courthouse that cost $5,237 was built in 1851. Featuring a stepped-gable design to hide it’s triangular roofline6, the courthouse looked like an old building somewhere on the Erie Canal! Although it wasn’t designed to be fireproof⁶, it lasted for fifty-three years before work started on the current Warrick County Courthouse in 1904.

The present courthouse -the county’s sixth- is a mix of Beaux Arts and Neoclassical stylings that is unlike any other in the state. Each of its four sides is similar, with classical entrance porticos, triangular pediments, and two-story columns⁷. A short, open belfry that rises seventy feet above the square sits atop the hipped roof.

From the ground, it’s easy to see an angled ladder that reaches the clockworks from the open area. I love open belfries, and Warrick County’s is one of Indiana’s finest. It’s fun to anthropomorphize buildings, and the courthouse looks like a big, yawning cyclops. A tall, spindly cupola he wears as a hat probably adds another twenty feet to the building’s overall height.

While researching this post, I came across a reference that mentioned the entire clock tower was a later addition to the building because it was a gift from Herbert Hoggatt. A local attorney, Hoggatt struck it rich at an Alaskan goldmine and became one of Boonville’s most prominent citizens.

The story isn’t true: a Sanborn fire insurance map from 1907 shows the courthouse with an extant, open masonry clock tower⁹, and additional research indicated that the clocks themselves represented Hoggatt’s gift, not the tower¹⁰. Courthouse clockworks in Brazil, Peru, and Greencastle, were donated under similar circumstances, so it comes as no surprise.

Architects William Harris and Clifford Shopbell specified that the building be clad in yellow Huntingburg brick. Several others in southern Indiana used that material too, but didn’t combine French and Greek influences like the Warrick County Courthouse does. That’s part of what makes the building such a treasure in the state’s portfolio.

The Warrick County Courthouse might be a can’t-miss stop for fans of Hoosier architecture, but it was hard to see when I visited because its Shelbyville square was a mess of jumbled utility poles, power lines, and gantries for reassurance markers that advertise IN-61 and IN-62. I hate when governments block people like me from showcasing their proudest buildings from their best angles! Unfortunately, the courthouse square in Greencastle, the one with the buzz bomb, is laid out the same way.

Fortunately, Google Street View images appear to show that the entire square has been renovated since my trip! Today, it’s a much more attractive space than it was when I took photos seven years ago. The new landscaping and signage combines with the courthouse’s mix of styles, open belfry, yellow brick, and contrasting limestone trim to make the building completely unique. Although local courts are now conducted from a blasé building to the north, most of the county’s offices are still in the 119-year-old building, and it serves as a phenomenal anchor for Boonville’s invigorated downtown.

TL;DR
Warrick County (pop. 45,844, 26/92)
Boonville (pop. 6,.337)
Photographed 7/10/2016
Built: 1904
Cost: $75,000 ($2.02 million in 2016)
Architect: William JH. Harris & Clifford Shopbell
Style: Beaux Arts/Neoclassical
Courthouse Square: Shelbyville
Height: 70 feet
Current Use: County offices
89/92 photographed

Sources Cited
1 Nance, Karen. “Transcribed from ‘History of Warrick County and its Prominent People.” Darlington. Marsha’s Warrick Web. 2019. Web. Retrieved 10/14/19.
2 “A History of Warrick County, Indiana, Prior to 1820, Including a Sketch of Methodism in the County Down to 1850” Indiana University [Bloomington]. 1915. Print.
3 National Register of Historic Places, Boonville Public Square Historic District, Boonville, Warrick County, Indiana, National Register # 86002720.
4 “Boonville” Warrick County, Indiana. Genealogy Trails. 2019. Web. Retrieved 10/14/19.
5 “History of Warrick, Spencer, and Perry Counties, Indiana: Goodspeed Brothers & Co. [Chicago]. 1885. Print.
6 Enyart, David. “Architects” Indiana County Courthouse Histories. ACPL Genealogy Center, 2010-2018. Web. Retrieved 10/14/19.
7 Indiana Landmarks (2013). Warrick County. Indianapolis. Indiana Landmarks. Web. Retrieved 10/14/19.
8 “Warrick County Courthouse, Boonville, Indiana” Indiana Memory. Indiana State Library. 2019. Web. Retrieved 10/14/19.
9 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map. 1907. Sanborn Fire Insurance Company. Indiana University Libraries. Web. Retrieved 10/14/19.
10 Gaul, J. (1990, October 10). Old Boonville letters recall gold mine era. The Evansville Press. p. 45.