Read time: 5 min.

It’d been nearly a full decade since I found myself in Peru, Indiana, at the tail end of one of my early courthouse photo trips. The light was fading, rain had started to fall, and my old digital point-and-shoot just couldn’t keep up. I always meant to return for better photos, but life kept getting in the way. Fortunately, that changed a few weekends ago: I returned to Peru with time for the Miami County Courthouse, but I was there to see the circus. 

When was the last time I’d been to the circus? Probably thirty years ago, and I’m only thirty-four! When Aunt Jan invited my brother and me to tag along to the Peru Amateur Circus during Peru’s Circus City Festival, though, we couldn’t say no. She’s the fun aunt who never lost her sense of adventure, and this was one of those invitations you just don’t turn down. The circus it was. 

Every circus needs a ring, of course. Most often, they need three. The whole operation requires a place to set up and in Peru’s case, the story starts in 1832. That’s when Miami County was founded¹. The area’s earliest courts met in the village of Miamisport, which thrived until Peru, popped up next door².

Hoping to outshine their neighbor, Peru’s boosters struck a deal with an engineer from the Wabash and Erie Canal. They offered him land if he built a feeder dam in their budding town. The engineer agreed³, and the rest is history. Peru’s first courthouse soon followed, hailed as one of the finest buildings in Indiana⁴ until it tragically burned in 1843.

Isaac Hodgson designed a replacement courthouse that looked like the Old Main at a liberal arts college⁵. Unfortunately, it didn’t stand the test of time and required frequent repairs. In 1905, residents circulated a petition “praying⁶” for a new courthouse. Funds were appropriated later that year, and Cleveland architects Lehman & Schmitt were hired to design the new building. The $300,000 structure was completed in 1922. 

That replacement courthouse -the one that still anchors downtown Peru- makes quite an impression. Its main entrance boasts a grand portico framed by four towering columns topped with Tuscan capitals. Above that, a broken pediment cradles a clock face that rises over a bold, projecting cornice. The real showstopper is at the center: a massive dome crowned with a skylight that gives the Neoclassical structure a sense of drama that feels right at home in the Circus City.

To me, that unusual dome looks all the world like a Circus tent. That tracks: at its peak, Peru served as the winter home for Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus, and a handful of other traveling troupes that made their name under the big top⁷.

I’d known about Peru’s circus roots the first time I visited, but I had no idea that the tradition was still alive through the Circus City Festival or that the town even had its own amateur circus. After wandering around downtown, Aunt Jan, John, and I headed over to the local hippodrome to find our seats. We grabbed hot dogs and popcorn, and I braced myself for a few rounds of kids doing somersaults.

I didn’t expect much from a group of amateurs, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. The show blew me away. It was incredible! Probably 70% of the two-hour performance took place in midair with trapeze, aerial silks, and high-wire routines. Even the acts that stayed grounded, like the German Wheel, were mesmerizing. It was a phenomenal show in a grand old hall. 

The three of us left in awe. Still, I couldn’t help but scope out the old courthouse on the way to our car. The Miami County Courthouse dominates downtown Peru! The courthouse might not match the grandeur of Lima’s Plaza de Armas or the stark heights of Arequipa’s Mirador de Sachaca in the actual country of Peru, but it’s one of the most striking in the state. Along with the Peru Amateur Circus arena, it towers over the Circus City Festival.

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 Courthouse History. Keith Vincent. 2018. Web. Retrieved May 21, 2024.
6 (See footnote 2). 
7 Adkins, K. (2009) Peru: Circus Capital of the World. Arcadia Publishing [Mount Pleasant]. Book.