Read time: 6 min.

The end of World War II brought surging economic prosperity to the United States. As a result, many families moved away from crowded, deteriorating urban areas to seek the American Dream in the suburbs! Downtowns declined, but officials revived New Albany’s by replacing a block of historic civic buildings with modern ones in 1961¹. In a first for Indiana, the project put the city hall and county courthouse under the same roof.

What worked for Floyd County and New Albany in 1961 would never fly today. It’s been nearly forty-five years since a historic courthouse was demolished in Indiana, and several downtown revitalizations have been successful because of the anchoring presence a historic courthouse provides². 

In the 1950s, though, old buildings represented antiquated ideals at odds with the atomic age. The situation in Floyd County got so bad that a Saturday Evening Post reporter sent to New Albany for a story couldn’t even find the courthouse. He kept driving past it, thinking it was a deserted warehouse³! 

I’ve never seen a warehouse that features enormous Doric columns, but the incident put city and county officials on notice. Spurred by new legislation that paved the way for consolidated building authorities, they joined forces to demolish an entire city block where the 1867 courthouse, an ancient post office, and the elderly Floyd County Jail stood.

In their place, officials erected what Indiana Governor Matthew E. Welsh called “obvious evidence of their faith in the future of their own community⁴.” The first of its type, the 70,000 square-foot New Albany-Floyd County City-County Building housed the combined government functions for, you guessed it- Floyd County and the city of New Albany.

The cumbersomely-named building led to the development boom that local officials pined for. Shortly after it was completed, a new bank sprung up nearby. In 1966, the federal government erected a new post office and United States Courthouse where the old jail once stood!

Downtown New Albany was back, and Floyd County’s triumph served as a wake-up call to officials elsewhere. A contingency from Delaware County toured the new building in hopes of replicating its success in downtown Muncie⁵. Not to be outdone by their neighbors, officials in Madison County visited the structure shortly after⁶.

Today, it’s hard to see how revolutionary the New Albany-Floyd County City-County Building was when it first dropped. I thought it looked like a middle school when I visited in 2016! Beyond the building’s aesthetics, though, it predated the massive City-County Building in Indianapolis by a year, and both structures led to a new era of consolidated governmental facilities we still live in today.

Aesthetics are subjective, but I didn’t grasp the ingenuity of the building’s design until after my visit. A four-story structure of concrete and glass, architects Walker, Applegate, Oakes, & Ritz used a curtain wall system that meant its facade wasn’t structural.

The east and west walls of the courthouse were designed to transfer lateral wind loads to metal framing members anchored to the building’s concrete skeleton. The arrangement was cost effective, but also reduced sway and allowed natural light to penetrate the depths of the 70,000-square-foot structure.

On the outside, aluminum mullions span the height of the building and vertically separate its tinted windows and infill panels. Meanwhile, scalloped porticos that exude an Asian vibe shield the recessed north and east entryways. I have no idea why the architects chose that motif since it’s absent from their work elsewhere, but It adds character to the otherwise cut-and-dried exterior design.

Aside from the truncated columns of its predecessor, the courthouse’s most notable features are three enormous medallions that adorn its east front. From left to right, they trumpet the City of New Albany, the New Albany-Floyd County Building Authority, and Floyd County itself. Each are affixed to thick cables that anchor the medallions to the building’s highest and lowest elevations.

All those elements put the New Albany-Floyd County City-County Building on the Indianapolis Star‘s list of best new architecture in 1963⁷! You may have to blink and clear your eyes like I did to believe it, but the building has been eligible for the National Register of Historic Places for the past twelve years.

I say we get it on the list: although the courthouse may look dated now, New Albany’s city center is anything but. It features a riverfront amphitheater and greenway, new luxury apartments, and a thriving cultural scene! When I visited, the city contrasted strongly with the fates of places like Huntington, South Bend, Muncie, and Richmond, whose officials tried to fight the suburban growth of the 1950s and 60s by turning their primary thoroughfares through downtown into pedestrian malls.

Each attempt was a dismal failure, but New Albany didn’t have to resort to those tactics. The construction of the New Albany-Floyd County City-County Building spurred development that meant officials didn’t have to lure people back to the city center. They were already there thanks to the “new” courthouse.

I learned a few things during my trip to New Albany back in 2016. The first was simple- never park your car in front of the building you want to take photos of! Otherwise, I realized that supporting a thriving downtown often involves a coordinated effort between government agencies, local businesses, and community stakeholders. The continued prosperity of downtown New Albany shows that the mix of resources behind the innovative Floyd County Courthouse was a success.

TL;DR
Floyd County (pop. 76,244, 21/92)
New Albany ( pop. 36,803)
75/92 photographed
Built: 1961
Cost: $2.4 million ($19.21 million in 2016)
Architect: Walker, Applegate, Oakes, & Ritz
Style: International
Courthouse Square: Shelbyville Square
Height: 4 stories
Current Use: City/county offices and courts
Photographed: 4/3/2016

Sources Cited
1 “New Albany Builds Remedy for Decay” The Muncie Evening Press [Muncie] July 9, 1965: 1. Print
2 “Indiana’s Historic Courthouses”. Indianapolis: Courthouse Preservation Advisory Commission, 2011. Print.
3 Seidl, Gregg. New Albany. Charleston. Arcadia Publishing, 2006. Print.
4 “New City-County Building Dedicated” The Journal & Courier [Lafayette]. October 18, 1961: 43. Print
5 “New Albany ‘Cure’” The Muncie Evening Press [Muncie] July 9, 1965: 3. Print
6 “Leaders Tour New Building” The Anderson Herald [Anderson] June 5, 1962: 1. Print
7 “Indiana’s Best in Modern Building Architecture” The Indianapolis Star [Indianapolis] September 22, 1963. 32. Print