Maintaining an old building is complex and challenging. It involves balancing historical significance with modern needs and economic realities. Despite those difficulties, though, preservation is vital for retaining a connection to our cultural and architectural history! In that vein, the versatility of the Grant County Courthouse has ensured its continued use after nearly a hundred and forty years.
Grant County was formed in 1832, nineteen years after forces under William Henry Harrison fought against Miami villagers in the Battle of the Mississinewa. Situated along the skirmish’s namesake river, Marion was quickly established as the county seat. A two-story frame courthouse was built in 1834 for $6841.
Officials believed the new courthouse was large enough to serve the community for a long time, but Grant County grew more rapidly than anyone expected: 4,875 people called it home by 1840! Officials returned to the drawing board and paid a local doctor $4,000 to build a two-story, 40×40-foot brick replacement2.
Some Indiana counties wrung a surprising amount of life out of their early brick courthouses. Grant County’s was used until 1880. It probably could have lasted longer, but the area continued to grow swiftly thanks to its position as an agricultural trading center on the Mississinewa. According to Census figures, the population of Grant County exploded an astonishing 484% in the forty years after its 1838 courthouse was built!
That insane growth occurred before the Indiana Gas Boom, which saw Grant County reach 54,000 residents -another astonishing 231%- by 1900. The trajectory nearly matched what we’ve seen lately around Hamilton County, and it convinced commissioners to solicit plans for the current structure. Officials chose E.E. Myers, a Detroit architect who was just as well known for his buildings as he was for the hissy fits he threw when his designs weren’t chosen3.
When Grant County officials touched base with him, Myers was fresh off a lawsuit alleging that prolific architect Edwin May plundered his design for the Indiana State Capitol building. He often unsuccessfully sued winning bidders by citing stolen ideas and plagiarism, but Myers could have even brought suit against himself: his design for Grant County’s new courthouse was a spitting image of his 1882 plans for the Lorain County Courthouse in Ohio.
Myers’ courthouse rises three stories above a raised basement with heavily rusticated stone massing4. The north and south faces of the building once served as its primary entrances. Each features a central portico that terminates in a pediment featuring an oculus. Although officials across Indiana have torn out monumental courthouse stairways over the years, Grant County’s still exists. Unfortunately, it’s roped off in favor of two street-level entrances leading to the building’s raised basement.
The overall impression I got from standing in front of the courthouse was a sense of its height. I’m not some rube out of Dogpatch who’s never seen a skyscraper, but I couldn’t shake the thought that the tall, narrow building would topple over on me. It’s impressive, but I would have loved to have seen it back when a forty-foot-tall dome still rose from its center.
Conversations about removing the courthouse dome began in the 1930s5. They picked up speed in 1940, when the structure was blackened by a fire. A year later, its nine-foot statue was struck by lightning, which caused a 110-volt electric line inside the building to fuse with a separate 200-volt run6. Light bulbs in the courthouse lit up so hot and bright that they temporarily blinded officials working that evening7!
Officials finally recognized that the dome presented problems in 1942 and appropriated $5,000 for its removal. The landmark was removed a year later. In an interesting coincidence, the identical dome of Myers’ Lorain County Courthouse was removed another year afterwards
The decapitation of the dome meant that the courthouse ceded its title as Marion’s tallest building to the seven-story Marion National Bank tower nearby. Fortunately, though, its removal paved the way for the building’s continued use: a 1940 study indicated that remodeling the guts of the courthouse would be self-liquidating since county offices renting space downtown could move back inside8.
Along with adding new office space, initial plans for the project called for the renovation of both the building’s courtrooms, the addition of modern jury spaces, and the installation of a new elevator where the central rotunda had been. Unlike its contemporaries in nearby Anderson and Muncie, Grant County’s courthouse featured thin bearing partitions and interior walls that could be altered if necessary9.
A process called “decking” involved gutting the building floor by floor as crews installed new stories between the structure’s high ceilings. Aside from the changes suggested years earlier, the extensive renovation provided a new hot water plant, rubber tile flooring, modern lighting and plumbing, and drop ceilings to cope with high energy costs10.
Today, the interior of the Grant County Courthouse bears little resemblance to Myers’ original design. It’s not ideal, but the changes helped keep the old courthouse in service. More crucially, the building is still here! Preserving old structures for continued use is a multifaceted undertaking that requires a concerted effort from communities, officials, and preservationists. Overcoming the challenges associated with preservation is essential to ensure that historic and architectural treasures like the Grant County Courthouse continue to enrich our societies for generations to come.
TL;DR
Grant County (pop. 70,061, 22/92)
Marion (pop. 29.948).
14/92 photographed.
Built: 1882, decapitated 1943
Cost: $212,776 ($5.27 million in 2016)
Architect: Elijah E. Myers
Style: Greek Revival
Courthouse Square: Shelbyville Square
Height: 3.5 stories.
Current Use: Courts and some county offices
Photographed: 8/15/15.
Sources Cited
1 Enyart, David. “Grant County” Indiana County Courthouse Histories. ACPL Genealogy Center, 2010-2018. Web. March 23, 2019.
2 History of Grant County, Indiana (1886). Brant & Fuller [Chicago]. Book.
3 Indiana Landmarks (2013). Grant County. Indianapolis. Indiana Landmarks. Retrieved from http://indianacourthousesquare.org
4 3 National Register of Historic Places, Marion Downtown Commercial Historic District, Marion, Grant County, Indiana, National Register # 94000226.
5 (See footnote 1).
6 “Grant county courthouse struck by lightning.” The Muncie Evening Press [Muncie]. June 3, 1941: 9. Print.
7 “Lights Up” The Kokomo Tribune [Kokomo]. June 10, 1941: 8. Print.
8 “Grant Council Studies Courthouse Remodeling” The Indianapolis News [Indianapolis]. July 15, 1940: 24. Print.
9 Taxpayers association backs courthouse” The Muncie Star [Muncie]. September 23, 1965: 8. Print.
10 “Grant County Courthouse Solution Eyed by Committee.” The Muncie Star [Muncie]. October 3, 1963: 25. Print
