Lake County, Indiana, has so many courthouses that it wouldn’t shock me to find an embryonic superior court building gestating in the basement of one of the four that already exist. Fortunately, the county comes by them honestly: Outside of Indianapolis/Marion County, it’s Indiana’s largest and most densely populated. The buildings serve seven cities, twelve towns, and three Census-designated places! The newest is East Chicago’s. It was built in 1979.
Lake County officials were nutty for courthouses back in the 1970s. A superior courthouse in Gary already existed, but 1972 saw the completion of a new superior courthouse in Hammond. A sprawling governmental center north of Hammond followed in 1974. Officials planned another in East Chicago, but Chicago’s Public Administration Service published a study that claimed it wasn’t necessary in 1977.
The study asserted that the courthouses in Gary and Hammond weren’t needed either. Rather than waste money on an unnecessary new courthouse in East Chicago, the consultants recommended that the project be scrapped, the courthouse in Hammond be closed, and the building in Gary be repurposed for juvenile courts only1.
Officials in Lake County disagreed with the assessment. That November, they opened bids for a new courthouse in East Chicago anyway2. Unfortunately, the project proved controversial3. Local newspaper articles cited the proposed structure’s sparse facilities, which consisted of a single courtroom and jury room, a law library, a probation office, and a sheriff’s office.
The media also insisted the new courthouse brought too little improvement for its price, even though it’d receive star billing as an anchor for East Chicago’s Indiana Harbor District4. It didn’t help that the mayor of East Chicago -a huge advocate for the project- was also the chairman of Lake County’s Democratic party and that a county commissioner from East Chicago was said to have been elected as the mayor’s “man” on the council5.
None of that mattered in the end, and employees moved into Lake County’s newest courthouse on March 26, 1979, as its sidewalks waited to be poured. The new building represented an enormous functional upgrade over its predecessor, rented quarters within an old union hall that’s since been demolished.
The completed building kept to the initial plan. It features two stories, a partial basement, and a mechanical penthouse. The first floor features offices for the county clerk, the sheriff, a commissioner, and the building manager. The second consists of the lone courtroom, a law library, and other auxiliary areas. Although mostly constructed of steel, glass, aluminum, and iron spot brick, the courthouse featured canary yellow accents inside. Its primary architect called it “kind of atypical for an institutional building in this area6.”
In 2010, the courthouse was officially renamed the Judge Lorenzo Arredondo Justice Center after the longest-serving Latino trial court judge in the United States. Arredondo presided over the Lake County Court from 1977 to 1980 before transitioning to the county’s superior court, where he served until 2011. Last I knew, the retired judge was still serving the community as the Lake County Clerk.
I wasn’t interested in modern courthouses when I started my project to document all of them in Indiana. Initially, I ignored the building in East Chicago during my first trip through Lake County! Later, I realized that fifty years is all it takes for a structure to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
I’d never been to East Chicago before, and I was surprised to see the Indiana Harbor District completely packed! Wide sidewalks, new pavement, decorative lampposts, and fresh construction indicated a reborn downtown in stark contrast to much of the rest of Lake County.
It’s indisputable that a courthouse, no matter its size and age, brings people downtown. I’m glad Lake County has stuck with theirs, particularly after a 2017 study suggested that the area’s satellite courthouses be eliminated. Thankfully, a commissioner from Hammond remembered that courthouses “hold value far and above the specific function of whatever goes on in the building7.” Truer words have never been spoken.
Auxiliary superior courthouses rarely get a day in the sun, but it’s high time we celebrate them. Buildings that look like East Chicago’s are no longer being constructed! Despite new urbanist trends that are taking over our cities, it’s crucial to acknowledge modern buildings from the 1970s and 80-s for what they are- maybe not the pinnacle of architectural exuberance, but functional designs that we can be sure will last over decades of use. One way or another, they still contribute to vibrant city centers like East Chicago’s.
TL;DR
Lake County (pop.491,456, 2/92)
East Chicago (pop. 27,930)
Built: 1979
Cost: $1,070,000 ($3.5 million in 2016)
Architect: Wendell Campbell Associates, Inc.
Style: Modern
Courthouse Square: No square
Height: 2 stories
Current Use: Some government offices and courts
Photographed: 5/26/20.
Sources Cited
1 “Consultants Against New E.C. Courthouse’ The Times [Munster]. Nov 29 1977. Page 15. Print.
2 “Bids opened” The Times [Munster]. Nov 1, 1977. Page 15. Print.
3 “County Ponders ‘Mystery’ Ruling” The Times [Munster]. June 25, 1968. Page 1. Print.
4 “Courthouse Bids Due” The Times. September 28, 1977.
5 “No way to economize” The Times [Munster]. October 24, 1977. Page 10. Print.
6 “E.C. Workers Move” The Times [Munster]. March 27, 1979. Page 3.Print.
7 “Satellite court study rejected” The Times [Munster]. April 20, 2017. Page A1. Print.
