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Elmer Dunlap was the king of Indiana’s Neoclassical courthouses, responsible for those in Delphi, Rockport, and Petersburg. Before he started designing buildings from the ground up, he cut his teeth by redesigning earlier structures. His first project, completed in 1911, refreshed the thirty-nine-year-old Jackson County Courthouse in Brownstown. It’s still standing today as a far cry from his later endeavors.

Jackson County was founded in 1816. Early county meetings took place in the community of Vallonia, but the first courthouse was built in Brownstown. A 24 x 24-foot log building, the structure was later moved and used as a school, church, and barn¹. A 40×40 brick structure succeeded it in 1825².

Abel Findley was responsible for the third Jackson County Courthouse, a 42×32 brick edifice completed in 1835. The first iteration of the current courthouse was completed in 1872. Designed by David Bolen, the $45,000 building was an early example of stateside Second Empire architecture known for its elaborate detailing and symmetrical facades.

Bolen’s courthouse rose three stories and featured contrasting quoins, stone courses, and heavy massing. Measuring ten bays long by three bays wide³, the building was topped by a mansard roof, four brick chimneys, and an understated wooden cupola⁴.

Despite its size and the inclusion of a modern steam heating plant⁵, it cost a paltry $45,370- far less than its peers. It only took about forty years for the building to become obsolete, and that’s when Elmer Dunlap arrived in town.

Instead of building an all-new courthouse, Dunlap proposed that officials heavily renovate the building but retain its core. Today, what’s left over from the 1870 structure is hard to find. My best guess is that Dunlap added Neoclassical wings to the length of the structure, sort of like a letter H. That’s pretty much what he did at Brookville, where he was remodeling the Franklin County Courthouse around the same time⁶.

Beyond his changes to the building’s floorplan, Dunlap replaced its mansard with a hipped roof and swapped out the tiny cupola for a large clock tower with a pyramidal cap that rose 100 feet⁷. Unfortunately, it no longer exists.

During the summer of 1959, a series of storms destroyed the clock tower and ruined much of the building’s interior. Once lightning struck, the building burned unnoticed for more than 45 minutes during a brief thunderstorm around 2:05 p.m., according to when the clock’s hands stopped moving.

The tower was a flaming beacon when a postal worker sounded the alarm. Firefighters were called from three counties, but heavy winds complicated the fight. Most of the clock fell from the tower to the empty third-floor attic, the stained glass dome was smashed by falling wreckage, and the witness room was damaged. After the fire was out, a crack appeared in the probate clerk’s office. Water filled the basement. Pumps were rushed to the scene, and no permanent damage was recorded⁸.

The $95,000 reconstruction project was overseen by architect Charles M. Brown and began later that year⁹. While the plan called for the ruined rooms inside the courthouse to be fixed, the county decided to forgo the clock tower’s pyramidal wooden cap to make the next lightning strike more manageable. Ever since, the tower has sported a flat roof and two different colors of bricks where it was rebuilt.

Restoring a historic building like the Jackson County Courthouse required a delicate balance between preserving its historical integrity and implementing modern safety measures. Fortunately, officials mostly got things right. Aside from its peak, the clock tower appears much the same as it did before the blaze. The building received a new roof and clock, but the shattered glass skylight over the lobby wasn’t restored. Instead, it was covered over¹⁰.

Ultimately, the renovation honored the 1912 appearance of the courthouse and safeguarded it for future generations. As a result of Bolen, Dunlap, and Brown’s eighty-seven-year architectural collaboration, the Jackson County Courthouse remains a landmark reminder of the community’s resilience, perseverance, and collective achievements more than a hundred fifty years after its first iteration was erected.

TL;DR
Jackson County (pop. 43,466, 33/92)
Brownstown (pop.2,992)
42/92 photographed
Built: 1870, remodeled  in 1911.
Cost: $65,000 ($1.29 million in 2016)
Architect: Elmer E. Dunlap and Marshall E. Van Arman
Style: Neoclassical
Courthouse Square: Shelbyville Square
Height:100 feet
Current Use: Some courts and county offices
Photographed: 8/23/15

Sources Cited:
1 Enyart, David. “Jackson County” Indiana County Courthouse Histories. ACPL Genealogy Center, 2010-2018. Web. Retrieved 1/8/20.
2 (See footnote 1).
3 Courthouse History. Keith Vincent. 2018. Web. Retrieved 1/8/20.
4 John Blumenson, Identifying American Architecture: A Pictorial Guide to Styles and Terms, 1600-1945 (New York: W W Norton & Company, 1981), 68.
5 Counts, Will; Jon Dilts (1991). The 92 Magnificent Indiana Courthouses. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. Print.
6 Indiana Landmarks (2013). Jackson County. Indianapolis. Indiana Landmarks. Web. Retrieved 1/8/20.
7 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map. 1916. Sanborn Fire Insurance Company. Indiana University Libraries. Web. Retrieved 1/7/20.
8 “Temporary Repairs Under Way At Fire-Damaged Courthouse” The Tribune [Seymour]. July 2, 1959. Print.
9 Work On $80,303 Project Set Soon (1959, November 21). The Seymour Tribune. p. 1. 
10 (See footnote 9).