Read time: 5 min.

I’ve been to Angola many times over the years, but I never ventured within its city limits until 2016. I’d gone to the toboggan slide at Pokagon State Park with family, and some friends and I even made it to the old Fun Spot Park to ride the Afterburner. Years later, I’m kicking myself for not visiting downtown sooner. I went years without seeing its charming Lancaster square and stunning courthouse!

Lancaster squares look like traffic circles. They’re rare in the Hoosier state, and only six percent of courthouses here feature them. Shelbyville squares resemble a regular city block and are much more common; 85% of Indiana’s courthouses sit on one. Combine the two and you’ve got a Harrisonburg square, which makes up 3% of the state’s offerings. The remaining Hoosier courthouses don’t sit on a formal square at all¹.

County seats with Lancaster squares generally feature the courthouse prominently in the middle, but Angola is different. As far as I can tell, neither of Steuben County’s courthouses have ever stood there! Instead, the central part of the square was reserved for other purposes that we’ll come back to in a bit.

Steuben County was founded in 1837. In 1841, Angola’s boosters agreed to build a frame courthouse there for $2,000 roughly at the site of the present structure². In 1867, it was moved to the east side of the square, where it was used as a business until at least 1885³. The present courthouse -the county’s second- was built in 1867. The construction process used local materials like bricks manufactured nearby at Lake James⁴, and the courthouse resembles a more intricate version of Nashville’s in Brown County.

Architecturally, the building shares Greek Revival proportions and Italianate details. Instead of columns, the main facade -facing north- has relief pilasters joined by rounded arches that delineate its bays. A pair of double doors under an iron balcony and circular window provide access, and the courthouse is topped with an octagonal cupola sitting on a square base with a captain’s walk.

The courthouse featured county offices on its first floor and a massive courtroom that took up the entire second story in its original configuration. Space constraints in the seventy-year-old building begat a 1937 project that lowered the ceilings to carve out a third floor and expand the courthouse to the south⁵. The addition doesn’t match the scale of the original structure, but it’s sympathetic.

The Steuben County Courthouse is a grand old dame, but it’s not the most prominent landmark in downtown Angola. The Steuben County Soldiers’ Monument rises seventy feet above the city’s Lancaster square, and it’s the centerpiece of downtown. Although early photos of the courthouse show the central square as home to floral arrangements, hitching posts, and streetlights⁶, but locals always wanted a monument.

It’s a majestic sight to behold, and downtown Angola is captivating. Aside from the courthouse and monument, places like Sassafras & Sage, Bent Fork Art Studio, Monument Pizza, and the Brokaw and Strand Theaters packed the buildings of Angola’s NRHP-listed business district when I was there!

It’s been seven years since I visited, but I doubt Angola’s city center would thrive if it wasn’t anchored by a historic courthouse. That said, the community really cherishes its history. Its stewardship of the past doesn’t stop at the courthouse: in 1994, officials ponied up $2 million to transform Angola’s 1932 high school into the Steuben Community Center. Many of the county’s administrative offices are located there today⁸.

My favorite downtowns feature charm and character that reflects the community’s identity and values. Angola has that charisma in spades, and I think the 156-year-old courthouse on the unusual Lancaster square is to thank for it.

TL;DR
Steuben County (pop. 34,358, 45/92)
Angola (pop. 8,649)
60/92 photographed
Built: 1867. Renovated and expanded in 1937.
Cost: $27,000 ($462,000 in 2016)
Architect: Freeborn Patterson
Style: Greek Revival/Italianate
Courthouse Square: Lancaster Square
Height: 72 feet
Current Use: Courts and some county offices
Photographed: 3/16/16

Sources Cited
1 Indiana’s Historic Courthouses. Indianapolis: Courthouse Preservation Advisory Commission, 2011. Print.
2 Enyart, David. “Steuben County” Indiana County Courthouse Histories. ACPL Genealogy Center, 2010-2018. Web. Retrieved 1/6/20.
3 (See footnote 2).
4 National Register of Historic Places, Steuben County Courthouse, Angola, Steuben County, Indiana, National Register # 75000051.
5 Indiana Landmarks (2013). Steuben County. Indianapolis. Indiana Landmarks. Web. Retrieved 1/6/20.
6 Smith, John Martin. “Angola and Steuben County in Vintage Postcards” Arcadia Publishing [Chicago]. 2001. Print.
7 “Steuben County Soldiers’ Monument” Steuben County Through The Years. Local History Department, Carnegie Library of Steuben County. Web. Retrieved 1/6/19. 
8 Marturello, M. (2019, February 24). Steuben Center has served community 25 years. KPCNews. Web. Retrieved November 29, 2023.