Imagine writing a Hallmark movie that involves a holiday scene at the county courthouse. Unless you grew up somewhere like Muncie or New Albany, I bet you’d conjure up something that looks a lot like the Johnson County Courthouse in Franklin, Indiana. The building seems to have come straight from central casting! It’s one of Indiana’s most majestic.
Johnson County was formed in 1823 and named after John Johnson, an Indiana Supreme Court Justice1. The county recorder, William Shaffer, built a two-story log courthouse in 1824, and it lasted for six years2. A replacement brick structure, forty feet square with a cupola, was ordered in 18303. The building was completed in 1832, but a fire destroyed it seventeen years later.
Two of Indiana’s most accomplished early courthouse architects, John Elder and Edwin May, collaborated on Johnson County’s next courthouse. The $10,000 building measured 50×84 feet and lasted until it burned in 1874. Unfortunately, no photos, blueprints, sketches, paintings, faxes, emails, or texts exist. It’s impossible to know what influence the older Elder, who served as architect, may have had on May, who acted as the builder4.
A temporary frame courthouse was used until 1882, when officials hired George W. Bunting to design a new one. Bunting was the son of a sea captain from Pennsylvania who originally intended to take up his father’s trade. Instead, he enrolled in architecture school before joining up in the Civil War. After moving to Bloomington, Illinois, Bunting finally relocated to Indianapolis.
From his offices there, Bunting contributed eight courthouses to Indiana’s portfolio! Unfortunately, only a few remain. Johnson County’s was probably his most freewheeling design, and it’s Franklin’s most prominent structure by far. Coming into town from US-44, you can’t miss it! I haven’t found out for sure, but I bet the building rises to 165 feet.
I’ve always wondered about the four circular windows at the tower’s second level. Apparently, they originally served as clock faces. Around 1900, the clocks were remounted onto the tower’s pyramidal roof so they could be seen from farther away5. The tower can be spied from miles, but getting up close to the courthouse reveals a special treat, Franklin’s Harrisonburg square.
Only seen elsewhere in Lake and Vanderburgh Counties, the plan combines the more typical Shelbyville and Philadelphia Squares: streets intersect at all four corners of the block, but also in the middle of the north and south sides. A squat structure at the southwest corner of the square is what’s left of an old boiler house that once supplied the courthouse with heat.
Aside from its height, the most striking feature of the Johnson County Courthouse is its eclectic nature. Bunting combined Neoclassical elements like pediments, modillions, and columns with Beaux Arts details like gobs of ornamentation and monumental stairways.
Furthermore, the building’s four corner turrets certainly imply a Second-Empire influence! If America is a melting pot and Indiana’s the crossroads of it, Johnson County features quite an interesting gumbo thanks to Chef Bunting. Just look at the contrasting brick and limestone.
Inside, the courthouse features a central, east-west hallway with curving, open stairs in the middle. Windows and doors are framed in Neo-Jacobean moldings, while the ceilings are barrel vaults sprung between steel joists6. I’ve never been inside it, but I’ve been told the building’s historic interior is mostly intact from its earliest days.
The Johnson County Courthouse has stood for more than 140 years. Fortunately, it shows no sign of slowing down anytime soon. In 1983, it underwent a $2.3 million renovation project7 to replace the building’s heating, cooling, plumbing, and electrical systems. It also paved the way for the building to be used primarily by the courts. The same year, a $3.3 million brutalist Johnson County Courthouse Annex was completed to house the remainder of the county’s administrative offices8. Unfortunately, I didn’t think to get a picture of it.
The people of Franklin and Johnson County are lucky to have such a wonderful old courthouse to call their own. As the most individualistic of George Bunting’s eight designs, the building is a singular, eclectic landmark for all of central Indiana. Here’s hoping that its constituents continue to take pride the commanding structure and its towering presence.
TL;DR
Johnson County (pop. 145,535)
Franklin (pop. 24,194).
Built: 1882
Cost: $98,000 ($2.43 million in 2016)
Architect: George W. Bunting
Style: Neoclassical/Beaux Arts
Courthouse Square: Harrisonburg Square
Height: 2.5. stories
Current Use: County courts and some offices
Photographed: 3/12/16- 46/92
Sources Cited
1 Gannett, H. (1905). The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States. Government Printing Office [Washington, D.C.]. Book.
2 Enyart, David. “Johnson County” Indiana County Courthouse Histories. ACPL Genealogy Center, 2010-2018. Web. Retrieved July 5, 2024.
3 Branigin, E.L. (1913). History of Johnson County Indiana. B.F. Bowen & Co., Inc. [Indianapolis]. Book.
4 (See footnote 2).
5 National Register of Historic Places, Johnson County Courthouse, Franklin, Johnson County, Indiana, National Register # 81000017.
6 (See footnote 5).
7 Counts, Will; Jon Dilts (1991). The 92 Magnificent Indiana Courthouses. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. Print.
8 Government Center (1983, March 18). The Indianapolis News. p. 16.
It is lovely inside too. I used to get there with some frequency, and almost always had good experiences with the judges there.