In 1921, residents of Spencer County were proud of their new courthouse. The Rockport Journal proclaimed it would be “a thing of beauty and a joy, if not forever, at least for a hundred years1!” Forty-two courthouses across the state have come and gone since then, but the paper’s prediction was prescient: In 2021, the Spencer County Courthouse celebrated its centennial.
It’s hard to contemplate wringing a hundred years out of a newly erected building today. Nevertheless, Spencer County officials went all-in on theirs, touting the courthouse as “the finest courthouse in southern Indiana” as “a monument to the intelligence and patriotism of the people of this county2.”
The day the cornerstone was laid featured five hours of parades, performances, and speeches. The celebrations continued once the building was finished, a year behind schedule. A second event lauding its dedication lasted all day3! Interestingly, lawyers in Rockport stopped charging for their services during the construction process. They set their livelihoods aside to eliminate any appearance of political graft while the courthouse was completed4.
Did Spencer County succeed in its goal of creating the finest courthouse in all of southern Indiana? It’s subjective, but the new building was far more luxurious than the ones it replaced. The county, established in 1818, first used a log courthouse for four years. The cabin was followed by a 40×40 foot coffee mill design built by Daniel Brown and Thomas P. Britton5.
Thomas DeBruler was responsible for the thid Spencer County Courthouse. Completed in 1865, the two-story Civil War-era building with Greek Revival and Italianate elements strongly resembled the old courthouse in Shoals, minus its belfry6.
By 1915, it was clear that the fifty-year-old building was too small and couldn’t be expanded. Officials hired prolific architect Elmer Dunlap to develop plans for a replacement courthouse. Unfortunately, it took work four years to commence after restrictions on construction materials were repealed at the end of World War I7.
Despite the delays, residents were right to be pleased with Dunlap’s design. The Neoclassical courthouse is a three-story rectangle with projecting central entrance bays. A parapet with a clock on each side conceals a glass skylight that covers an enormous stained glass dome over a central rotunda.
The north side of the building acts as its primary face. It’s divided into three segments dominated by a five-bay projecting entryway with enormous Doric columns. The south entrance takes the same shape, while the east and west fronts are narrower.
Inside, the courthouse is laid out around its stained glass rotunda, which gazes down on a sixteen-point terrazzo star in the floor. The building is impressive, especially given the amount of people who lived in Spencer County at the time and how much they had to shell out.
We expect our biggest cities to be home to our greatest courthouses. Places like Fort Wayne, Terre Haute, Lafayette, and South Bend each feature stunning landmarks, but smaller communities like Rockport share in the civic pride. Landmark courthouses aren’t outliers across Indiana’s small towns- they’re the norm! As a result, the state has one of the best portfolios of historic courthouses in the country.
TL;DR
Spencer County (pop. 45,844, 71/92)
Rockport (pop. 2,153)
90/92 photographed
Built: 1921
Cost: $275,692 ($4 million in 2016)
Architect: Elmer Dunlap
Style: Neoclassical
Courthouse Square: Shelbyville
Height: 3 stories
Current Use: County courts and offices
Photographed: 11/11/17
Sources Cited
1 “All in Readiness” The Rockport Journal [Rockport]. July 11, 1919. Print.
2 “Great Event Coming” The Rockport Journal [Rockport]. May 9, 1919. Print.
3 “The Building Committee” The Rockport Journal [Rockport]. July 15, 1919. Print.
4 National Register of Historic Places, Spencer County Courthouse, Rockport, Spencer County, Indiana, National Register #99000304.
5 Courthouse History. Keith Vincent. 2018. Web. Retrieved 4/18/20.
6 Enyart, David. “Spencer County” Indiana County Courthouse Histories. ACPL Genealogy Center, 2010-2018. Web. Retrieved 4/18/20.
7 Counts, Will; Jon Dilts (1991). The 92 Magnificent Indiana Courthouses. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. Print.
