Read time: 6 min.

I began collecting courthouse postcards after finishing my tour of all of the state’s ninety-two counties. Many of the cards I tracked down showed buildings that had long since vanished, which made them them tiny windows into a past I never encountered. Then, out of the blue, someone contacted me about creating an updated Indiana courthouse book. He hoped to use my writing, and before long, a proof copy landed on my doorstep. I mailed him my entire postcard collection -six or seven years ago now- and never heard a word back.

Before I packed up my postcard collection and shipped it off for what ended up being forever, I guess, I took the time to scan my favorites. Thank goodness I did. In no particular order, here are a few more of the old courthouse postcards that still stand out to me the most.

The Randolph County Courthouse in Winchester, Indiana

Originally built in 1877, the Randolph County Courthouse was two stories tall with a high mansard roof and an ornate clock tower. Its architect, self-trained J.C. Johnson, rose to prominence in the Midwest and designed the courthouse to match the Second Empire style popular during the Victorian era. By and large, the building appears the same today as it did when it was constructed 140 years ago.

Unfortunately, the 1954 obliteration of the courthouse’s clock tower, along with its mansard roof, meant the loss of a Winchester landmark visible from miles away. Thankfully, officials decided to restore it! The project was completed in the fall of 2011 as workers guided the last piece of the new tower to its final destination 132 feet in the air. After 57 years, Randolph County was on the map again with a new, old courthouse visible from miles around.

The Marion County Courthouse in Indianapolis, Indiana

Marion County’s old courthouse was once a sight to behold: An Indianapolis Daily Sentinel editorial written the year it opened went so far as to describe the structure as “one of the finest, handsomest and solidest piles in the West,” and “an enduring monument to the skill, integrity, and honesty of Isaac M. Hodson, the architect.”

Eighty years of heavy use takes a toll on a courthouse, though, and Marion County’s became run-down, grimy, and outmoded by the time that the passage of a statewide resolution allowed cities and counties to form joint building commissions. The building was demolished in 1962 after the 373-foot Indianapolis City-County Building was completed.

The Clark County Courthouse in Jeffersonville, Indiana

Located on the site of the present structure in Jeffersonville and occupied by October 1878, Clark County’s old courthouse rose two stories above an exposed limestone foundation. Brick walls supplanted that first floor and featured tall, rectangular windows below a heavy cornice and hipped roof.

Unfortunately for the venerable building, Clark County had grown 56% over the two decades that preceded the completion of the current courthouse. Sprawling across an entire city block, the 1970 courthouse that officials first designed to serve about 76,000 residents now brings justice to a population of more than 120,000.

The Grant County Courthouse in Marion, Indiana

Grant County reached 54,000 residents by 1900 as the Indiana Gas Boom was in full swing. The trajectory nearly matched what we’ve seen lately around Hamilton County, and it convinced commissioners to solicit plans for the current courthouse. Officials chose E.E. Myers, a Detroit architect who was just as well known for his buildings as he was for the hissy fits he threw when his designs weren’t chosen.

Conversations about removing the courthouse dome began in the 1930s. They picked up speed in 1940, when the structure was blackened by a fire. A year later, its nine-foot statue was struck by lightning, which caused a 110-volt electric line inside the building to fuse with a separate 200-volt run. Officials finally recognized that the dome presented problems in 1942 and appropriated $5,000 for its removal. The landmark tower was removed a year later. 

The Montgomery County Courthouse in Crawfordsville, Indiana

The Montgomery County Courthouse was built in 1876. Sixty-five years later, an artist commissioned to paint the building noticed that the tower appeared to be leaning. It was wartime, and officials acted in haste by decapitating the courthouse, melting its bell down, and dumping the clockworks by the county highway barn. A local jeweler rescued the clock and put it up at his store downtown, but the rest was history.

The decapitated courthouse served Montgomery County for seventy-six years. In October 2017, county officials finally approved a contract to construct the new tower after twenty-one years of fundraising. The new tower rises eighty-six feet above the building, and its a sight to behold.

The Huntington County Courthouse in Huntington, Indiana

The second Huntington County Courthouse was completed in 1859 by William McGrew and David Silvers. The 70×60-foot building cost $28,000 and featured a unique Gothic style with tall second-story windows an an octagonal belfry with crenellations. Aside from its tower, it was similar to the 1864 DeKalb County Courthouse and the Steuben County Courthouse built five years later. 

Built largely of oolitic limestone from Bedford, Indiana, the current courthouse features a granite base and a flat roof topped by its stained glass dome and cupola. Each symmetrical side of the building features a central, projecting entrance portico with a triangular pediment and clock. Four groups of Corinthian columns support the pediment, resting on second-story balconies. 

The Delaware County Courthouse in Muncie, Indiana

The fourth Delaware County Courthouse remains controversial more than fifty years after its construction. One look at the stark, brutalist structure makes it easy to miss its predecessor, Brentwood Tolan’s 1887 Beaux Arts masterpiece.

As majestic as the old building was, though, time was not kind to it. Commissioners floated a replacement as early as 1938. By 1944, The Muncie Evening Press noted that the bell inside the clock tower had fallen silent, and the clocks no longer provided the same time on each face. 162 feet below the clocks, a broken limestone staircase was deemed a “monument to neglect” by the same newspaper. It was finally demolished in 1966, and its replacement -the Delaware County Building- was finished the following year.

Here’s one last look at the old Delaware County Courthouse in its final years- a reminder that these buildings weren’t frozen in time. They grew and changed right alongside their communities, adapting to new eras in ways both inspired and unfortunate before meeting their end. I think I’ve got even more postcard scans tucked away yet, and I may be sharing them soon.