Most of Indiana’s historic courthouses share a common architectural lineage. At first glance, I’d have put money on the Jasper County Courthouse in Rensselaer being a product of the Rush Brothers! Their courthouses in Winamac, Rochester, and Rushville all look similar to Rensselaer’s. Fortunately, key details separate Grindle & Weatherhogg’s design from those Richardson Romanesque structures. Indiana’s portfolio of historic courthouses is better for it.
Jasper County was formed in 1838, but took its present shape in 1859 after Benton and Newton Counties were carved from its expansive borders1. A county seat was first established in Parish Grove. Commissioners moved it to a smaller community in Pine Township after the newly-elected county clerk refused to perform his duties unless it was relocated closer to his residence2!
Jasper County’s first courthouse was a log structure, sixteen feet square. It served for a year before the seat was relocated again in 1839. That’s the year Rensselaer was laid out, and its first courthouse was a building on Cornelia Street. Proprietor James Van Rensselaer built his own courthouse, a two-story frame structure that measured 31 x 36 feet, in 18453.
The next official courthouse in Jasper County was a brick building completed in 1956. The 70 x 50 structure with a courtroom and six offices cost $10,000 and sat on the public square4. Builder Benjamin Hinkle called for secure vaults to house the county’s records, but officials found they’d been duped into installing inferior models eight years after the building was completed: i 1864, a late-night fire said to be started by a disgruntled county official destroyed nearly all of Jasper County’s early records.
The blaze also damaged the building’s roof and interior. Both were repaired by J.A. Silver, who took the opportunity to install satisfactory vaults. The reconfigured courthouse was completed in 1865 and served its constituents for more than thirty years before it was removed to make way for the present building.
Commissioners selected Fort Wayne architect Alfred Grindle to design the $156,000 structure. After he was chosen, Grindle associated himself with Charles Weatherhogg, a fellow employee of the Wing & Mahurin firm. Weatherhogg wound up completing the building after Grindle dropped out5 and later became famous for Fort Wayne’s North Side High School, Journal-Gazette Building, and Fairfield Manor6. For his part, Grindle remains best known for his revival-style architecture in Bloomington’s University Courts Historic District7.
Grindle and Weatherhogg’s courthouse is unique among Indiana’s governmental buildings because it adapts tropes often used in English houses of the Victorian period. Its high-pitched roof, freestanding chimneys, turrets, and gables all call out that those cues8. Outside, the four-story building is faced in Bedford Limestone and features a complex hipped roof. Entrances on the north and south sides of the courthouse are framed by two-story Tudor arches supported by columns, each flanked by three-story round towers that frame a wall dormer. The east and west sides feature similar motifs.
The courthouse appears similar to the Rush Bros. buildings in Winamac, Rochester, and Rushville, but it doesn’t really feature any rusticated massing, entrance portals, or other tropes of the Richardson Romanesque style. Inside, the first three floors of the courthouse feature terrazzo floors, oak woodwork, and marble wainscoting. The marble treatment continues in the building’s stairwells, where the steps feature oak treads, and the rest of the building features scagliola columns designed with a marbled appearance.
The second floor of the structure features brass chandeliers and Newel post lamps. The third serves the courts and features more brass chandeliers and oak judicial benches with hand-carved state seals. The building’s fourth floor is an attic with multilevel flooring and a spiral staircase that leads to the tower. The tri-level belfry rises 120 feet over the rest of Jasper with floors that feature windows, the clock, and the bell. It’s capped with the tallest flagpole I’ve ever seen.
I didn’t spend much time in downtown Rensselaer because of a time crunch. A bus of Griffith High School basketball players overturned, snarling traffic on I-65! When I was there, though, it looked like the next-tallest buildings in town were a pair of gaudy three-story structures on the northwest side of the square once home to a fraternal lodge, a clothing store, and a hardware store9. The Jasper County Courthouse isn’t just the tallest building in town, though; it’s also the oldest civic building in the county10.
Nevertheless, the Jasper County Courthouse has served at the heart of Rensselaer for nearly 130 years. Not only has it met the needs of Jasper County in the past and present, but meticulous care and attention to its upkeep ensure that it will play an enduring role in the community for years to come. Like all of Indiana’s historic courthouses, the Jasper County Courthouse is more than a building. It’s a symbol of continuity and a bridge that connects its constituents to their shared history.
TL;DR
Jasper County (pop. 33,281, 49/92)
Rensselaer (pop. 5,677).
Built: 1898
67/92 photographed.
Cost: $156,000 ($5.9 million today)
Architect: Grindle & Weatherhogg
Style: Norman Revival
Courthouse Square: Shelbyville Square
Height: 120 feet
Current Use: County offices and courts
Photographed: 3/19/16
Sources Cited
1 Hamilton, L. & Darroch, W. (1916). A Standard History of Jasper and Newtown Counties, Indiana, Volume 1. Lewis Publishing Company [Chicago]. Book.
2 (See footnote 1).
3 Enyart, David. “Jasper County” Indiana County Courthouse Histories. ACPL Genealogy Center, 2010-2018. Web. Retrieved June 8, 2024.
4 (See footnote 1).
5 (See footnote 1).
6 C.R. Weatherhogg Died Suddenly (1937, October 18). The North Manchester News Journal.
7 National Register of Historic Places, University Courts Historic District, Bloomington, Monroe County, Indiana, National Register # 07001308.
8 National Register of Historic Places, Jasper County Courthouse, Rensselaer, Jasper County, Indiana, National Register # 83000126.
9 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Rensselaer, Jasper County, Indiana (1909). Sanborn Map Company. Web. Retrieved June 8, 2024.
10 (See footnote 8).
Ted Shideler 