Read time: 6 min.

“Good, better, best. Never let it rest! Until the good is the better and the better is the best!” That cheerful motto was painted on the wall of the gym at Yorktown Elementary, but it never helped me conquer the president’s physical fitness tests for pull-ups. Two decades later, though, it became central to my understanding of three Indiana courthouses designed by A.W. and E.A. Rush. 

I’ve been to every courthouse in Indiana and several others in states nearby. It wasn’t until I was fifteen deep into Ohio’s that I realized something that stunned me: viewed as an alphabetical or otherwise arbitrary grouping, our courthouse portfolio seems incredibly diverse. It is varied, to be sure, but many of my favorites turned out to be designed by the same group of architects! More courthouses are similar than they are different.

Because of that, there tend to be a lot of comparable courthouses located disparately around the state. Separated by 159 miles, the triplets of Fulton, Pulaski, and Rush Counties are my favorites. Fulton County was named after the inventor of the steamboat, Robert Fulton. It was formed in 1836. Ebenezer Ward was responsible for Rochester’s first courthouse, a frame building away from the public square that was completed in 1837¹.

In 1846, a two-story brick and stone Federal-style courthouse designed by Joseph Miles followed². Meanwhile, Fulton County was growing. The Michigan Road extended through the area to connect Madison, Indianapolis, and Michigan City. In the 1860s, four rail lines grew to link Rochester with Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and Chicago³. 

By the 1890s, it was apparent that Fulton County needed new governmental facilities to accomodate the county’s increasing population. Pondering the situation, officials turned their attention to nearby Winamac. There, the Rushes were designing Pulaski County’s next courthouse⁴. 

A.W. and E.A. Rush were prominent courthouse architects. The people of Pulaski County didn’t have a lot of money to throw around, but they still convinced the Rushes to design a courthouse for $50,000. Commissioners in Fulton County were excited by what they saw, so they upped the ante and commissioned the Rush firm to design their own courthouse for $70,000. 

Taller and larger than Winamac’s the 1896 Fulton County Courthouse set a new standard for what the Rush family could design! Unfortunately, the record was short-lived: two years later, A.W. and E.A. shattered expectations with the monumental $250,000 Rush County Courthouse.

Good, better, best. 

Each of the three Rush courthouses is a landmark, and they all look similar. At first glance, the only difference is scale. Pulaski County’s tower reaches 106 feet, Fulton’s hits 120, and Rush County’s climbs 196 feet tall! The bulk of the buildings are similar too, but the Fulton County Courthouse is the only one to feature lions. 

Yes, lions. Large stone cats sit on pedestals at center stage at the lowest steps of all four of the building’s elevations. Smaller lions connected by scroll buttresses also flank the last set of steps on the building’s north and south sides⁵. Ten lions patrol the borders of the courthouse, all told, but no one seems to have the slightest idea why. Rochester Community High School’s mascot, for instance, is the Zebra. 

I’d imagine the prominent cats have to do with the image of strength and nobility that lions tend to signify. Nevertheless, taxpayers bristled at their inclusion while the building was still under construction. Statuary, metal furniture, marble wainscoting, and more than a hundred dollars diverted for new spittoons added 42% to the building’s initial cost⁶!

After all was said and done, officials held a tongue-in-cheek ceremony to christen the building and name the lions. One biting newspaper article said the celebration was necessary “so the taxpayers who must foot the enormous bill…may become more familiar with their pets and be able to salute them by name as they pass in to ‘behold the grandeur’ of the $175,000 unpaid-for temple of justice⁷.” 

Fortunately, the rest of the building was less controversial and follows the Romanesque mode popularized by Henry Hobson Richardson. Four stories tall with rusticated stone, arched windows, and hipped roofs with cross gables, the building towers over the rest of Rochester. Its semi-circular towers and conical turrets are unique amongst the rest of the Rushes’ designs. 

Inside, the building features a cross-hall plan with three public levels and an attic. The Assessor and Survey use the lowest part of the courthouse, and the treasure, auditor, clerk, recorder, and county commissioners take up the second. The third floor houses the courts. Double-wide stairs that rise from the west entrance lead to the second story, then cross to a landing where they split to the courtrooms. 

Fulton County has grown since the courthouse was built, but the courthouse has accommodated most of the changes. Unfortunately, the biggest modification to the building’s exterior occurred during the energy crisis of the 1970s, when aluminum windows were installed, transoms were removed, and the ceilings were lowered⁸. Nevertheless, the building remains a beacon to travelers passing through Rochester. It’s hard to believe that it represents the “better” of the “good, better, best” saying! You wouldn’t know it if you saw it firsthand! 

TL;DR
Fulton County (pop. 20,836, 72/92)
Rochester (pop. 6,218)
11/92 photographed
Built: 1897
Cost: $150,000 ($4.31 million in 2016)
Architect: A. W. Rush & Son
Style: Richardson Romanesque
Courthouse Square: Shelbyville Square
Height: 120 feet
Current use: courts and some county offices
Photographed: 8/15/15

Sources Cited
1 Enyart, David. “Fulton County” Indiana County Courthouse Histories. ACPL Genealogy Center, 2010-2018. Web. Retrieved June 23, 2024.
2 National Register of Historic Places, Fulton County Courthouse, Rochester, Fulton County, Indiana, National Register # 00001138.
3 (See footnote 2).
4 Arthur “E.A.” Rush (1860-1948). TFA. Tulsa Foundation for Architecture. Web. Retrieved 1/10/20.
6 (See footnote 2). 
7 “Fulton County Courthouse Lions” Save Outdoor Sculpture clipping files. Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana. Print. Retrieved 1/10/20.
8 (See footnote 2).