Indiana is rife with historic courthouses. More than ninety percent of our ninety-two counties are home to one! Still, some of our modern structures retain pieces of history as well: in downtown Anderson, the 1973 Madison County Government Center and Courts Building recently saw the installation of a historic bell that hadn’t rung in more than half a century.
The first Madison County Courthouse was a frame structure. The second was a two-story brick building that came in 1840. Unfortunately, it was destroyed in a conflagration forty years later1. A landmark designed by George Bunting2 was completed in 1884. Time wasn’t kind to it.
Madison County officials realized that they needed more room to conduct official business as early as 1955. That’s the year they authorized a study to explore several different possibilities of increasing the space that the courthouse offered3. Two years later, a $1.5 million bond was floated to construct an addition, an annex, or a brand new building4. The need was there, but residents didn’t quite see it yet. They voted it down.
A variety of county offices were scattered around downtown Anderson in rented quarters, but officials forced to work at the actual courthouse were in a bad way5 and jealously watched as counties around the state built new governmental structures. In 1962, officials traveled to Floyd County to tour its new City-County Building and returned impressed6. Seven years later, they attended the open house for Delaware County’s new courthouse in Muncie7. Officials eventually realized that it was time to act8.
By June of 1972, the old courthouse was no more. A gaping hole in the city square soon became home to a modern government center that Madison County could find new pride in. $4 million (about $24 million today) bought Madison County a lot of courthouse9! The new Madison County Government Center was an attractive building that featured brown bricks and bronzed windows, oddly modeled after the Standard Oil Company Research Center complex in Naperville, Illinois10.
Former state senator James Abraham announced plans to restore the original courthouse bell and have it peal from the new building’s south tower. The bell, which weighed 2,860 pounds, was forty-eight inches in diameter and valued at nearly $40,00011. It was sent to a Cincinnati company for refurbishment as funds were raised to install it at the top of the courthouse12, but it doesn’t appear that ever happened. Instead, the bell was set up silently in the new courthouse13.
Early last month, the bell was reinstalled at the top of the Madison County Government Center’s south tower after more than fifty years of silence. It’d been sent out for refurbishment in 2024, but has now been wired to the courthouse clock. It rings on the hour, every hour. The entire project cost $38,000, but local officials funded it from the county’s capital asset fund and County Commissioner Rick Gardner said it’d been a focus of his for some time. “I think history is very important,” Gardner said. “I don’t think we ever want to forget our history14.”
In a way, the return of the Madison County courthouse bell feels like a meaningful restoration of the community’s heartbeat. That’s what county officials intended15! With each hourly toll, Madison County’s past and present finally speak to one another again.
Sources Cited
1 Deacon, J. “Madison County”. American Courthouses. 2008. Web. Retrieved November 9, 2025.
2 Courthouse History. Keith Vincent. 2018. Web. Retrieved November 9, 2025.
3 “Council Approves Funds; Courthouse Plan Studied” The Anderson Herald [Anderson]. May 13, 1955: 1. Print.
4 “County Board Seeks $1,500,000 Bond Issue for New Courthouse” The Anderson Herald [Anderson]. October 16, 1957: 1. Print.
5 “Isn’t it time you did something about your Madison County Courthouse?” The Anderson Herald [Anderson]. February 24, 1966: 10. Print
6 “City-County Building” The Anderson Daily Bulletin [Anderson]. July 21, 1962: 4. Print.
7 “Delaware County Celebrates, Madison County Waits” The Anderson Herald [Anderson]. September 7, 1969: 1. Print
8 “Old Courthouse- Before the New Wore Off” The Anderson Daily Bulletin [Anderson]. September 21, 1973: 45. Print.
9 “New Government Center” The Anderson Herald [Anderson]. March 28, 1972: 4. Print.
10 “Courthouse Plans Are Unchanged” The Anderson Herald [Anderson]. May 13, 1972: 1. Print.
11 Historic bell makes comeback (1983, August 15). The Anderson Daily Bulletin. p. 1.
12 Fund drive tops $13,000 for courthouse bell (1983, September 27). The Anderson Daily Bulletin. p. 1.
13 Ouellette, T. (2025, November 3). Madison County Courthouse bell rings again after decades. IPR News [Muncie]. Web. Retrieved November 13, 2025.
14 (See footnote 13).
15 (See footnote 13).
I love it that someone finally followed through. And I love how it is not just mounted, but is working in time with the clock.
Agreed! That part is the best. I’ve yet to make it to Anderson to see it chime, but it’s on my list.