A couple of weeks ago, Visit Fort Wayne rolled out its “Be a Tourist in Your Own Hometown” program, which throws open the doors to some of the city’s best-known landmarks. For one afternoon, people get to step inside places like the Lincoln Bank Tower, the Embassy Theatre, the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, and the Botanical Conservatory- all for free! My Aunt Connie and I took advantage of the opportunity seven years ago and spent the day exploring the Allen County Courthouse. I snapped a handful of quick iPhone shots to remember the incredible building by.
If you’ve never seen the Allen County Courthouse in downtown Fort Wayne, you’re missing one of Indiana’s crown jewels. The Beaux Arts masterpiece is a national treasure that rivals the grandeur of many state capitols. At 239 feet, it’s actually taller than thirty of them! Designed by architect Brentwood Tolan and completed in 1902 for a then-staggering $817,000, the courthouse remains a monument to craftsmanship and civic pride. I’ve been lucky enough to wander its marble halls a few times over the years, including during its painstaking restoration in the early 2000s.
My second trip to the Allen County Courthouse came just after its renovation wrapped up in 2002. Aunt Connie invited me to the rededication ceremony, where Teddy Roosevelt’s great-grandson, Tweed, spoke exactly a century after his famous ancestor was set to present when the courthouse first opened its doors. I was only a kid, but standing there among the marble columns and murals left an imprint that’s never faded. Those trips helped spark my lifelong fascination with architecture!
My most recent visit started with Aunt Connie and me getting detained by security because we forgot we were carrying pocket knives. Ope! After that initial embarrassing snafu, we walked onto the gorgeous rotunda floor. Some people came with powerful cameras and tripods, but I had only my iPhone. Back then, I think it was carrying a 7.
Here’s the stained glass dome above the rotunda. Three of the country’s most prominent muralists embellished the arches around the buildiner’s inner dome1, and all of it was restored -inch by inch, in many cases2– twenty-five years ago.
As if the murals and stained glass weren’t enough, the courthouse also features Italian Carerra marble3, along with one of the most extensive examples of scagliola imitation marble in the world. All of it is on display just below the phenomenal rotunda.
There are several gargantuan sets of stairs that lead from the main floor of the courthouse to its second. Each flight is monumental, built on a scale meant to impress visitors and remind them of the building’s importance. I wished I’d backed up a little more to do this monumental stairway more justice.
Here’s one of the courthouse’s grand hallways. When Aunt Connie was a girl, her mom -my great-grandma- worked just down the hall in the auditor’s office. AC snapped a photo of me standing beside that imposing doorway, but I’m not sure whatever became of it.
From its center, Aunt Connie and I wandered into the building’s radiating courtrooms. I didn’t remember to denote which was which, but they all featured scagliola and murals- each seeming more opulent than the last. Here’s the first we visited.
The second of the four courtrooms Aunt Connie and I ducked into was another masterpiece, with gold-colored Ionic columns framing three grand old doors and a narrow pediment. Each of the courtrooms featured docents well-prepared to tell their stories.
Even though it was tucked deep inside the building, the third courtroom Aunt Connie and I stepped into felt as grand as the facades of some courthouses I’ve admired from the street.
The fourth courtroom we saw was my favorite. The scagliola columns were astounding, and the entire room appeared to have come straight out of some MGM Technicolor masterpiece. Given the lifelessness of today’s indifferent courtrooms, I couldn’t imagine trials actually being held in here. I’d have a lot of trouble staying focused if I were on the jury.
I really wish I hadn’t been tied up with other projects when Be a Tourist in Your Own Hometown recently returned. I’d have loved another chance to step inside the Allen County Courthouse and capture photos with a better camera. To me, it’s not just Indiana’s finest courthouse; it might be the most magnificent in the entire midwest. Perhaps it’s the best in the country! Every inch radiates the pride and ambition of the era that built and, later, restored the landmark. With any luck, it will stay without a rival for another century or more. That means I still have time to plan another visit, proper camera in hand.
Sources Cited
1 “Doing our part for generations to come” The Allen County Courthouse Preservation Trust. Web. Retrieved 4/22/18.
2 “Courthouse preservation group awarded for restoration work” WANE [Fort Wayne]. September 13, 2015. Web. Retrieved 4/22/18.
3 “A Walking Tour of the Allen County Courthouse” Fort Wayne. Allen County Courthouse Preservation Trust. Web. Retrieved 4/22/18.
I spent a week inside this courthouse earlier this year when I was on a jury. It was certainly an experience in a building like this, although the deliberation rooms are cramped and plain compared to the courtrooms.
Beautiful interior. Reminds me of Russian Orthodox churches I visited when I live in Russia for ten years. They spent what was then, an amazing amount of money to build the place.
That’s truly jaw dropping.
I wish I’d been able to take better photos!
What tremendous foresight it was to not move the courts when Fort Wayne/Allen County opened its trendy new City-County building. Even in the 1970s it must have been evident that the County had a gem in that old courthouse.
And even again when they didn’t move the courts to Citizens Square in the old W&D building.