Peru, Indiana, and Peru in South America may share a name, but they differ in almost every other way. The seat of Miami County is a quintessential Midwestern town with a population of about 11,000. The nation of Peru is home to more than 33 million inhabitants! Indiana’s Peru may not boast ancient ruins or Nazca Lines, but it is home to a courthouse with one of the most commanding presences in the northern part of the state.
The Republic of Peru formally declared independence from Spain in 1821. Peru, Indiana, came shortly after Miami County was formed eleven years later1. The area’s first courts were held in the village of Miamisport, which grew until Peru was founded next door2. Boosters there offered an engineer with the Wabash and Erie Canal a chunk of land if he located his new feeder dam in the new community. He accepted.
Miamisport dried up soon after the dam was completed3 and officials got to work building a courthouse. Designed by Samuel McClure, the two-story, Greek Revival building measured forty feet square and was regarded as one of the finest buildings in the state4! Unfortunately, the courthouse and all of its contents were destroyed in a fire on March 16, 1843.
Three weeks after the courthouse burned, officials decided to erect a fireproof office building of brick and stone for the clerk, auditor, and treasurer. A second structure for the recorder’s office was put up in 1848. Both served Miami County’s administrative officials for nearly a decade while the community finalized plans for an actual courthouse5. Eventually, commissioners hired Isaac Hodgson to design one.
Just thirty-two years old, Hodson was born in Belfast and studied at the Royal Academy before immigrating to New York in 1848. Seven years later, he became a practicing architect in Indiana6. Hodgson had already completed two Italianate courthouses in Vernon and Martinsville by the time he came to Peru7. Eventually, he designed six across the Hoosier State!
Hodgson’s Miami County Courthouse cost $29,600, measured 60×80 feet, and rose four stories. The later addition of a mansard roof and clock to the “Norman castle building8” made it look like Old Main at a liberal arts college9. Unfortunately, the building required frequent repairs. In 1905, residents circulated a petition “praying10” for a new courthouse. Funds for one were appropriated later that year.
Cleveland architects Lehman & Schmitt were responsible for Miami County’s third courthouse. Rising three stories of Indiana limestone and concrete, the $300,000 structure was completed in 1911 and faces southeast. The main entrance features a central portico supported by four large columns with Tuscan capitals. From there, a broken pediment with a clock rises above a projecting cornice. The center of the Neoclassical structure features an enormous dome with a skylight.
Peruvian architecture is dominated by Incan landmarks and Baroque cathedrals. Here in Indiana, some refer to the Miami County Courthouse as a scaled-down version of Lehman & Schmitt’s Neoclassical Cuyahoga County Courthouse in Cleveland11. There are certainly similarities like channeled stone, arched windows on the lower floors, recessed window bays, and other general design cues.
Despite that, the Miami County Courthouse is different enough from its big brother to stand on its own merits. Much of that is thanks to the squat, four-sided dome: framed with steel and decked in wood and copper, the semi-circular dome features a short, square lantern that marks the apex of the building’s cross-gabled roof. Inside, the dome’s inner walls are hollow brick supported by steel rods12.
I don’t know why, but the dome reminds me of the big top at a circus. The country of Peru is well known for its Peruvian Carnival that celebrates the beginning of Lent, but Peru, Indiana, calls itself the Circus Capital of the World. At one point, the city was the winter headquarters for Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, Hagenbeck-Wallace, and other smaller outfits13.
That’s probably why it reminds me of a big top tent.
The International Circus Hall of Fame remains an attraction in Peru, Indiana, today, and the city also hosts one of the world’s last steam calliope factories. Unfortunately, a quick Google search for “circus big top” shows results that bear little resemblance to the dome of the Miami County Courthouse. I guess it’s been a while since I’ve gone to one.
The building’s dome may be hard to see from up close, but its three-story rotunda is an unmistakable highlight of the building’s interior. Eight Doric columns on white marble bases rise from floors inlaid with Tennessee marble. The pillars support four two-story arches, and the third-floor balcony features three more pairs of limestone columns and two balustrades14. A white plaster drum and stained glass dome peer down from above.
Back outside, the courthouse lawn is full of treasures. Surrounded by a limestone wall, no fewer than six monuments break up the square. Clockwise from the southwest are an 1860 bell, an eight-foot Statue of Liberty, a slab commemorating navy veterans, a seven-foot “The Spirit of the American Doughboy” statue, a World War II monument, and a Korean-Vietnam War memorial.
The Miami County Courthouse dominates downtown Peru, where the next-tallest buildings are a pair of three-story structures just west of the city square. The courthouse might not match the grandeur of Lima’s Plaza de Armas or the stark heights of Arequipa’s Mirador de Sachaca, but it’s one of the most striking in the state and a unique entry into Indiana’s portfolio of historic courthouses.
TL;DR
Miami County (pop. 36,903, 44/92)
Peru (pop. 11,417)
12/921 photographed
Built: 1911
Cost: $300,000 ($7.7 million today)
Architect: Lehman & Schmitt
Style: Neoclassical/Beaux Arts
Courthouse Square: Shelbyville Square
Height: 3 stories
Current use: County offices and courts
Photographed: 8/15/15
Sources Cited
1 Goodrich, D. & Tuttle, C. (1875). An Illustrated History of the State of Indiana. R.S. Peale & Co. [Indianapolis]. Book.
2 Bodurtha, A.L. (1914). History of Miami County, Indiana. The Lewis Publishing Company [Chicago]. Book.
3 Enyart, David. “Miami County” Indiana County Courthouse Histories. ACPL Genealogy Center, 2010-2018. Web. Retrieved May 21, 2024.
4 (See footnote 2).
5 Deacon, J. “Miami County”. American Courthouses. 2008. Web. Retrieved May 21, 2024.
6 Burns, L. (1935). Early Architects and Builders of Indiana. Indiana Historical Society [Indianapolis]. Book.
7 Counts, Will; Jon Dilts (1991). The 92 Magnificent Indiana Courthouses. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. Print.
8 (See footnote 2).
9 Courthouse History. Keith Vincent. 2018. Web. Retrieved May 21, 2024.
10 (See footnote 2).
11 (See footnote 3).
12 National Register of Historic Places, Miami County Courthouse, Peru, Miami County, Indiana, National Register # 08000194.
13 13 Adkins, K. (2009) Peru: Circus Capital of the World. Arcadia Publishing [Mount Pleasant]. Book.
14 (See footnote 12).
That is one square-jawed courthouse!
I hadn’t seen it that way, but you’re completely right!