Columbus is home to a superb collection of remarkable architecture- it almost has to be to live up to its nickname, “the Athens of the Prairie!” Standout architects like I.M. Pei, Elder and Eero Saarinen, Kevin Roche, and Harry Weese all contributed to the city’s inventive skyline, but Isaac Hodgson got there first: His Bartholomew County Courthouse was hailed as the “finest in the West1” when it was completed in 1874.
Bartholomew County was founded in 1821. Early courts met at John Parker’s house on Haw Creek until a county seat was eventually established at Tiptonia. The community was renamed Columbus, and a permanent courthouse was completed in 18312.
Commissioners hired prolific architect John Elder to design a replacement eight years later3. The courthouse was used for more than three decades! Unfortunately, by 1870, commissioners called it “dilapidated, crumbling, and unsafe4.” The structure was sold, but residents balked at the cost of erecting a replacement. Officials moved ahead anyway and hired Isaac Hodgson to draw up plans for a new one.
An Irishman born in Belfast, Hodgson immigrated to New York at twenty-two and moved to Louisville in 1849. He was practicing architecture in Indianapolis by 1855 and eventually designed six Hoosier courthouses5! Four remain today, and Bartholomew County’s is probably the most impressive.
As far as I can tell, the Bartholomew County Courthouse is the only remaining Second Empire building in the county. The Second Empire mode emerged in the mid-19th century and was characterized by its ornate and opulent features. The Bartholomew County Couthouse has them in spades! Shaped like the letter “L,” the building features red brick walls trimmed in limestone, steep mansard roofs, a projecting entrance bay with an arcade of segmented arches, and Corinthian columns.
A 154-foot clock tower serves as the courthouse’s elbow and extends four levels from its cornice. The first two feature a tall, arched window flanked by a pair of oculi. The third level of the tower features a louvered arcade for the six-inch-thick, one-ton bell6, and the fourth level consists of a tall mansard roof with iron and glass clock faces.
The building appears much the same as when it was first built save the roofing: the original slate was replaced with standing-seam copper in 1953, the same year its dormer windows and wrought-iron cresting were removed. The current cresting is a facsimile7.
Aside from the roofline, considerable renovations to the courthouse occurred in 1928 and 1968 after commissioners contemplated replacing the magnificent structure entirely. Nearly all the changes took place inside to increase office and storage space: new assembly rooms were framed into the third floor, and new offices were added to the basement.
More substantially, the renovations added new HVAC and plumbing systems, remodeled the courtrooms, and added a new staircase and hydraulic elevator8. I thought the semicircular tower at the building’s south face was built to house that elevator, but it’s origina. There’s a spiral staircase inside9.
Indiana is home to a variety of Second Empire courthouses. They all share design tropes like mansard roofs, elaborate detailing, decorative ironwork and moldings, and tall windows, but none look like Bartholomew County’s! The community’s decision to keep its distinctive courthouse says a lot about its appreciation of notable architecture, especially since the majority of Indiana’s modern courthouses were built around the time most of the famous buildings in Columbus were designed.
The best way for an out-of-towner to get to downtown Columbus is over the Robert N. Stewart Bridge, a landmark, cable-stayed pass that takes Second Street over the Flatrock River. Headed northeast, the bridge’s apex frames two prominent structures: the 166-foot belfry of the modern First Christian Church and the Batholomew County Courthouse.
Along with the 192-foot postmodern spire of the North Christian Church just out of view, the tower of the Bartholomew County Courthouse makes a compelling case for Columbus as having one of the most notable skylines across from Indiana. Although mid-century and postmodern buildings dominate downtown, the 139-year-old courthouse stands in striking contrast as a reminder of the city’s architectural history and the pride of its residents.
TL:DR
Bartholomew County (pop. 82,753, 18/92)
Columbus (pop. 47,143)
68/92 photographed
Built: 1874
Cost: $225,000 ($5 million in 2016)
Architect: Isaac Hodgson
Style: Italainate
Courthouse Square: Shelbyville Square
Height: 154 feet
Current use: County offices and courts
Photographed: 3/2716
Sources Cited
1 Tamara Stone Iorio, Columbus, Indiana: In Vintage Postcards (Arcadia: 2005), p. 20. Print.
2 Enyart, David. “St. Joseph County” Indiana County Courthouse Histories. ACPL Genealogy Center, 2010-2018. Web. Retrieved 10/6/19.
3 Enyart, David. “Architects” Indiana County Courthouse Histories. ACPL Genealogy Center, 2010-2018. Web. Retrieved 10/6/19.
4 ”Courthouse has always been focal point of county” The Republic [Columbus]. September 13, 1966. 31. Print.
5 Counts, Will; Jon Dilts (1991). The 92 Magnificent Indiana Courthouses. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. pp. 12–13. ISBN 978-0-253-33638-5.
6 “Indiana State Historic Architectural and Archaeological Research Database (SHAARD)” (Searchable database). Department of Natural Resources, Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology. Retrieved 10/6/19.
7 National Register of Historic Places, Bartholomew County Courthouse, Columbus, Bartholomew County, Indiana, National Register # 79000031.
8 “Courthouse Real Bargain at $225,000” The Republic [Columbus]. May 15, 1969. 17. Print.
9 “Image 4 of Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Columbus, Bartholomew County, Indiana”. Library of Congress. congress.gov. Web. Retrieved 10/6/19.
