Downtown Hartford City punches far above its weight from an architectural standpoint. Much of that impact comes from the 160-foot-tall Blackford County Courthouse, which dominates the skyline and announces the town long before you reach the square. Fortunately, it isn’t standing alone: among Hartford City’s most prominent structures is the old Ingram Hotel. It’s impressive in its own right.
I’m disinterested in the modern hotel landscape. Even setting the accommodations aside, most feel like interchangeable, boxy slabs- they’re monotonous buildings with no cupola, no ornament, and no sense of place. The Hotel Ingram, by contrast, was something else entirely: when it opened during the gas boom on January 29, 18941, it stood as a true architectural showpiece!
Rising three stories above the northeastern side of the square, the Hotel Ingram is a textbook example of the Romanesque Revival style. It’s known for its muscular, grounded look, where round arches crown windows and doorways, deep openings get set into heavy masonry walls, and towers are capped with conical or pyramidal roofs as part of intentionally asymmetrical façades2.
On its west front, the Ingram presents a balanced group of storefronts that were originally divided into three distinct bays. While wooden elements and metal-framed windows date to renovations from the 1960s and 1970s3, key original details still anchor its design: brick pilasters topped with limestone capitals continue to define its entrances, and above it all, the hotel’s original iron lintel remains exposed. The north side of the building is more workmanlike, but still impressive.
The Hotel Ingram’s second story breaks from strict symmetry in classic Romanesque Revival fashion. A large arched window anchors the corner tower, while the remaining openings are grouped in twos and threes across the façade. Just above them, a limestone tablet is inscribed “HOTEL INGRAM.” The third story echoes the arrangement of the second but with windows topped by transoms and framed by full Romanesque arches. The hotel is capped by towers at the northeast and northwest corners.
I love describing a building’s architecture as much as my layman’s understanding allows, but recounting the history of the Hotel Ingram is another story entirely. It’s confusing! Nine years after the hotel opened, in 1904, the “New” Ingram Hotel was under the management of J.W. Stuart, who remodeled the place to contain what were purported to be the newest conveniences and furnishings4. In 1925, the hotel -by then known as the Hartford- was sold from John E. Smith to E.D. Knoop of Minneapolis5.
Just two years later, A. G. Emswhiller sold the hotel to James Cronin Jr. and W. C. Niece6. My list of transactions is far from complete, but even the partial paper trail I found makes one thing clear: the Hotel Ingram, later the Hartford, was bought and sold very frequently. Its story is marked by constant change.
The Hotel Hartford was in operation as late as 19557, but I’m unsure of when it closed for good. By 1986, the building was dilapidated. That year, Joe Smith, Kurt Gentis, and Jim Landis purchased the structure, which housed two businesses on its first floor- Hair Attractions and Marion Bonham Abstract Company. At that time, the north side of the hotel was the only portion where its original features were intact8.
In 1996, the bottom of the hotel was home to Blackford County’s welfare offices and a flower shop. Today, it appears to hold offices for the county’s Purdue Extension service and the Licking Township Trustee. Aside from some Christmas decorations in the hotel’s old arched windows, the rest of the building appears vacant. As far as I’m aware, the only operating hotel in Blackford County today is the Relax Inn on State Road 3. The place gets middling reviews but, hey- it’s next to Taco Bell.
For all its changes in ownership, name, and purpose, though, the old Hotel Ingram still commands attention. It remains one of downtown Hartford City’s strongest architectural voices as a reminder of the optimism and ambition that once surged through the square during the gas-boom years. Aside from Hartford City’s landmark courthouse, buildings like the Ingram are why the town punches above its weight! It’s a place that still rewards anyone willing to slow down, look up, and imagine Hartford City as it was during its gas boom heyday.
Sources Cited
1 Greene, D. (1955, April 22). Seen and Heard in Our Neighborhood. The Muncie Star. p. 6.
2 Romanesque Revival (2011, October). Architectural Styles of America and Europe. Web. Retrieved December 27, 2025.
3 National Register of Historic Places, Hartford City Courthouse Square Historic District, Hartford City, Blackford County, Indiana, National Register # 06000522.
4 New Ingram Hotel (1904, January 22). The Muncie Star. p. 2.
5 Bonham Grove Picnic Planned (1925, August 8). The Muncie Star. p. .3.
6 Hartford City Hotel is Sold (1927, January 21). The Muncie Star. p. 9.
7 (See footnote 1).
8 Gleich, T. (1986, June 16). Hartford City Hotel Renovation Planned. The Muncie Star. p. 2.
It’d certainly be nice if the building could be saved but based on Hartford City’s 6K population and what I see on Google Maps I don’t know if it could sustain itself as a hotel. Perhaps it might have a better future as apartments but it looks like that sort of remodeling would require a serious cash transfusion.
The Relax Inn has a 3.0/5 rating on Google. I’ll stay elsewhere, thanks.
Yeah, not many places to stay in Hartford City. Blackford County is one of Indiana’s smallest. Most people go to Muncie for everything but basic essentials, or Fort Wayne which is further.
Hartford City peaked during the 1890s gas boom. The phenomenal courthouse, just reroofed with actual copper(!) is the best reminder of that.
That said, it’s one county north of here and is definitely underserved when it comes to history blogs!
All of those ownership changes suggest that the place has struggled from almost the beginning. I am trying to come up with a reason why an overnight visit to Blackford County might be called for, but am coming up empty.
Maybe a weekly stay is more up your alley. A room at the Relax Inn can be had for $275.
I remember doing some remodeling in this building, probably about 1990. The first floor was occupied, and the then current owner hired my brother (for whom I worked) to do some fixing on one of the second floor rooms. I remember thinking as I worked there (for maybe a week?) that in its day it would have been a grand ol’ place. There was an open balcony overlooking the first floor, if I remember correctly, but everything above the first floor was a dirty, dusty, unused mess for the most part. At that time, there were a few smaller businesses still going around the square, but the dime store and Val’s Department store (canticornered across the street from this building) were on their way out, and the Joe’s IGA just north was probably on its last leg. Marsh had just put in a large store on 3 on the north edge of town and was pushing out Joe’s, which also had another store south end of 3 in town.
The open balcony or mezzanine wouldn’t have shocked me in a place like this. I appreciate the color. I’m pretty sure that the building housing Val’s has been demolished, but I’ll scope it out next time I’m in town!