Read time: 6 min.

Madison, Indiana, was established in 1809 on a plateau at the Ohio River. The town was a busy port that accommodated heavy river traffic, and it even gained fame as a major stop on the underground railroad¹. Madison thrives even today, and a classic courthouse anchors the hustle and bustle.

Officials built a simple, two-story log courthouse in 1812, but it didn’t take long for Madison to become Indiana’s largest city. An octagonal, brick courthouse measuring 40×50 feet replaced the first in 1823, but it was totally destroyed in a fire² thirty years later. 1837 brought Indiana’s first railroad to town, the Madison & Indianapolis. Construction lasted eleven years, but the enterprise soon went into a slump and was sold in foreclosure in 1862³.

The loss of the railroad begat Madison’s decline. River traffic had become secondary to a new railroad that connected Louisville and Cincinnati, and Madison never again rose to anything more than regional prominence. The city’s limited economic prosperity meant that Madison lacked the means to demolish its old buildings and modernize. Today, tourists and residents have much to appreciate in and around its record-setting 133-block historic district⁴. 

The current Jefferson County Courthouse has stood at the corner of Main and Jefferson Streets since 1855. David Dubach designed it in the Greek Revival style that was popular before the Civil War with classical pediments, porticos, pilasters, and ionic columns⁵. Originally, historians thought the building’s columns were carved out of stone from a nearby quarry at Marble Hill.

The truth came out in 1998, when a renovation project revealed that the columns were made of metal and painted with sand to disguise the shortcut and give the appearance of real stone⁶!  Metal columns weren’t the only thrifty time-saver up Dubach’s sleeve, however. The building’s main entrance consisted of three arched openings under a second-story portico, and a similar design appeared in the Asher Benjamin’s 1827 tome, The American Builder’s Companion⁷.

I knew none of that when I first laid eyes on the Jefferson County Courthouse in 2009. “This is what an Indiana courthouse square should look like,” I thought as I strolled past. Apparently, officials in Switzerland County -just one county east- felt the same: seven years after the courthouse was completed, Matthew Temperly copied Dubach’s blueprints to build a new courthouse in Vevay. Aside from some small changes and renovations, the courthouses are nearly identical¹⁰.

Despite its copycats, the golden dome of the Jefferson County Courthouse stood proudly for a hundred-and-fifty-five years before tragedy struck. On May 20, 2010, firefighters from fifteen departments responded to Indiana’s first major courthouse fire in seventy-five years. Flames shot out of the tower only fifteen minutes after smoke was first reported. Its roof collapsed. The dome was scorched down to its skeletal frame.

Firefighting efforts saved the building but left five inches of water in its first floor. To make matters worse, the conflagration occurred the same day that a $160,000 restoration to the building’s exterior finished up just in time for Madison’s 200th birthday¹¹.

An investigation found that a contractor soldering two pieces of piping together was responsible for the inferno. Although he called for help as quick as he could, flames sped up a copper drain spout toward the tower¹¹. In the face of Madison’s celebration, the burnt building stood as a reminder of Madison’s difficulties.

Fortunately, Madison is a city that moves forward, dammit, from river to rail and from stagnancy to tourist hotspot. Officials immediately announced plans to return the courthouse to its original splendor, and they did. At a cost of $8 million, the building was restored to such a fantastic degree that it’s nearly impossible to tell the new from the old. Jefferson County rededicated it on August 26, 2011.

A few artifacts recovered from the flames are now on ceremonial display. The original clock sits inside the courthouse, and the bell that fell during the fire is situated under a brick pavilion on the courthouse lawn¹². Campbellsville Industries, the Kentucky firm that returned clock towers to the Montgomery and Randolph County courthouses, came to the rescue with an aluminum facsimile of the 1859 cupola.

Fire might cause our institutions to fail, but a little Hoosier ingenuity is all it takes to bring them back to action. As a structure that’s seen its share of changes, the Jefferson County Courthouse is a prime example of Madison’s resilience. As one of Indiana’s most noteworthy historic courthouses, the building is best experienced in real life, just like old Madison is. If you’re a fan of architecture, put Jefferson County and its phenomenally-restored courthouse on your list of places to visit.

TL;DR
Jefferson County (pop. 32,458, 53/92)
Madison (pop. 12,049)
40/92 photographed.
Built: 1855, expanded in 1998, restored 2011 after fire.
Cost: $36,000 ($924,000 in 2016)
Architect: David Dubach
Style: Greek Revival
Courthouse Square: Shelbyville Square
Height: 3 stories
Current use: County offices and courts
Photographed: 8/23/15

Sources Cited
1 Hudson, J. Blaine. Fugitive Slaves and the Underground Railroad in the Kentucky Borderland. McFarland, 2002. Print.
2 Enyart, David. “Jefferson County” Indiana County Courthouse Histories. ACPL Genealogy Center, 2010-2018. Web. Retrieved 4/14/20.
3 Hallberg, M. C. “Railroads in North America: Some Historical Facts and An Introduction to an Electronic Database of North American Railroads and Their Evolution”. 2006. Web. Retrieved 4/14/20.
4 “Madison Historic District”. Madison, Indiana. National Parks Service. Web. Retrieved 4/14/20.
5 Windle, John T., The Early Architecture of Madison, Indiana (Madison: Historic Madison, Inc. and the Indiana Historical Society, 1986), p. 115)
6 Hodges, Laura, “Anatomy of a Courthouse,” The Weekly Herald, 31 July 1998. Print.
7 Asher, Benjamin, The American Builder’s Companion, or a system of architecture particularly adapted to thepresent style of building, sixth edition, Boston, MA: R. P & CA. Williams, 1827, Reprinted by Dover Publications, C. New York
9 Enyart, David. “Switzerland County” Indiana County Courthouse Histories. ACPL Genealogy Center, 2010-2018. Web. Retrieved 12/8/19.
10 “Courthouse sustains heavy fire damage” The Madison Courier [Madison]. May 21, 2009. Web. Retrieved 4/14/20.
11 “Cause of Madison Courthouse fire revealed” WAVE 3 News [Louisvllie]. June 8, 2009. Web. Retrieved 4/14/20.
12 “Jefferson County Courthouse rededicated two years after three alarm fire” Indiana Courts [Indianapolis]. Web. Retrieved 4/14/20.