Parke County, Indiana, may be best known for its impressive slate of covered bridges, but it’s been the home to one of Indiana’s finest courthouses for nearly a hundred and forty years. The place was formed in 1821 from land controlled by Vigo County¹, and Rockville was named the county seat the following year. It’s said that the town got its name after officials selected its site and toasted their decisiveness by smashing a whiskey bottle on a stone nearby²!

A log courthouse was built in Rockville in 1826³. Cabins don’t last very long, though, so a a two-story brick courthouse with a hipped roof and central cupola was erected in 1832 by Matthew Stewart⁴. “Coffee mill” courthouses like Parke County’s had a functional lifespan of about fifty years. In 1879, commissioners hired T.J. Tolan and his son Brentwood to design a new one⁵.

The Tolans were prolific architects who designed six other courthouses in Indiana and at least four more in neighboring states. Their influence extends to Wing & Mahurin, a Fort Wayne firm started by T.J. Tolan’s primary draftsman that designed four more Hoosier courthouses⁶.

Brentwood Tolan eventually replaced George Wing as his father’s chief draftsman. The younger Tolan was enamored with the Beaux Arts movement, and T.J.’s later works included some of its grandiose and ornate design elements.

The Parke County Courthouse combines Brentwood’s Beaux Arts leanings with his father’s penchant for Second Empire design. Two and a half stories tall, the structure is faced with limestone above a sandstone water table. Each of its sides features an embellished entryway, and the primary entrance to the courthouse is accessed from underneath an arched portico.

The first floor of the courthouse features segmental-arched windows⁷, the second story utilizes windows with conventional arches, and dormer windows open from a roof. The building is capped with a three-story clock tower and a dome of stone and iron.

The courthouse features ornamentation like stone banding, columns, and pilasters. It may come as a surprise that nearly all of the building’s ornamentation above the roofline is iron, not stone! You can tell by the difference in color, especially when it rains.

I was shocked when I learned how often Victorian architects used cast iron veneer on intricate courthouse components. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been since it’s a practice that continues to this day. Recent renovations to courthouses in Randolph, Jefferson, and Montgomery Counties all featured prefabricated aluminum towers that showed up on-site more or less ready for installation.

Overall, the building sits as the first entry into a trilogy of courthouses designed by the Tolans. The Kosciusko County Courthouse in Warsaw was completed shortly after Parke County’s, and Muncie’s Delaware County Courthouse was finished in 1887. In 1890, Brentwood Tolan completed a fourth courthouse, Whitley County’s in Columbia City, that completed the set of similar structures.

The Parke County Courthouse is an imposing landmark for those headed into Rockport for the Parke County Covered Bridge Festival. Its commanding presence is apparent to regular travelers, too, like me: I first passed the building on my way to a weekend camping at Turkey Run State Park after my project to take photos of all of Indiana’s historic courthouses stalled. In large part, I have the Parke County Courthouse to thank for inspiring me to complete the project.

In 2015, the exterior of the courthouse received a renovation by Bulley & Andrews Masonry Restoration. It’s obvious that locals care deeply about their old courthouse, and here’s hoping that it continues to inspire people far into the future.

TL;DR
Parke County (pop. 17,202, 76/92)
Rockville (pop. 2,591)
55/92 photographed.
Built: 1882
Cost: $110,000 ($2.73 million in 2016)
Architect: T.J. and Brentwood Tolan
Style: Second Empire
Courthouse Square: Shelbyville Square
Height: 2.5 stories
Current Use: County offices and courts
Photographed: 3/13/16

Sources Cited
1 “About Parke County” Parke County Convention and Visitors Commission [Rockville]. 2020. Web. Retrieved 6/4/20.
2 Taylor, Robert. “Indiana: A New Historical Guide” Indiana Historical Society [Indianapolis] 1989. Print.
4 Indiana Landmarks (2013). Parke County. Indianapolis. Indiana Landmarks. Web. Retrieved 6/4/20.
5 Enyart, David. “Parke County” Indiana County Courthouse Histories. ACPL Genealogy Center, 2010-2018. Web. Retrieved 6/4/20.
6 Enyart, David. “Architects” Indiana County Courthouse Histories. ACPL Genealogy Center, 2010-2018. Web. Retrieved 6/4/20.
7 National Register of Historic Places, Rockville Historic District, Rockville, Parke County, Indiana, National Register # 93000471.