The county homes of Indiana don’t come in one shape. Some are weathered stone saltboxes standing for a century. Others spread out like a trident when you see them from above. Plenty take a familiar T-shape, too, and LaPorte County’s follows that last layout and runs with it. The building sprawls! Of all the infirmaries I’ve tracked down, it may be the largest.
The idea of a LaPorte County Home got its start in the 1830s when county commissioners made a provision for a poor farm near Pine Lake1. Officials discovered that the place wasn’t big enough for the county’s growing needs by 1886, so they bought a larger plot in Scipio Township2.
A massive new county home was soon built there, just south of the LaPorte County Fairgrounds on what’s now State Road 23. The fifty-room, two-story structure wound up housing fewer indigent people than expected, but it still served a clear need4. Unfortunately, a 2008 inspection revealed that the institution was home to only thirty-three residents. Still, it boasted a new roof, new windows, a new boiler and generator, and brickwork. If that wasn’t enough, the home had recently been hooked up to LaPorte’s city water service5.
Despite that, the LaPorte County home closed in 2016 after the state stopped subsidizing the operation of the few remaining county homes that remained6. A year before, plans to convert the building into an elderly shelter that would also serve ten indigent residents and low income families fell through7.
Three people lived at the expansive county home when it finally closed. Fortunately, though, officials sought alternatives to demolishing the place8: in 2020, the property was purchased by J&B West Properties, LLC, a branch of a roofing and construction company from Michigan City. The organization’s plans were unclear: different concepts like a bed and breakfast, an event venue, and even housing were all considered9.
Six years later, the future of the place still feels stuck in neutral. When I stopped by, a logging truck blocked the east side of the circle drive. I slipped in from the west. Up close, the building looked surprisingly sound but also unmistakably idle. It’s waiting for something that hasn’t come! As one of the few county homes left standing in Indiana, LaPorte’s isn’t just worth saving in static. The bulding seems to be worth using again.
For now, though, the old LaPorte County Home sits in a familiar in-between state I keep running into. It’s too big to ignore, too intact to dismiss, and too uncertain to move forward. The sprawling structure was built to solve a problem that hasn’t gone away, even if the way we address it has changed. From the front, it’s hard not to feel like the building still has something left to give! The question isn’t whether it deserves another chapter. It’s whether anyone will finally write one.
Sources Cited
1 La Porte County Asylum (2026, March 13). Asylum Projects. Web. Retrieved March 25, 2026.
2 (See footnote 1).
3 Dettmer, S. (2008, June 10). Facility still provides a service. The South Bend Tribune. p. E4.
4 (See footnote 1).
5 (See footnote 3).
6 COMMUNITYBriefs (2016, February 27). The South Bend Tribune. p. A3.
7 Maddux, S. (2015, August 11). Financing pursued to save LaPorte County Home. The South Bend Tribune. p. A3.
8 Maddux, S. (2016, September 20). USDA officials see potential in former LaPorte County Home. The Hammond Times. p. A4.
9 Maddux, S. (2020, March 1). Hospitality the vision for Old County Home. The Hammond Times. p. D15. |
