Read time: 5 min.

A few days ago, Indiana Landmarks unveiled its annual 10 Most Endangered list that highlights historic places teetering on the edge of extinction. The 2026 list features its usual assortment of fascinating and unusual properties, but one entry genuinely caught me off guard: the City-County Building in New Albany, just across the Ohio River from Louisville.

Like many American cities, New Albany entered the postwar era just as families and businesses were beginning their march to the suburbs. Downtowns suffered, but local officials fought back dramatically: in 1961, they replaced a block of historic civic buildings with a modern governmental complex¹. For the first time in Indiana, city hall and the county courthouse shared the same roof.

It’s hard to imagine such a project happening today -it’s been forty-eight years since Indiana last demolished a historic county courthouse²– but the Indiana County Building Authority Act of 1953 gave New Albany and Floyd County the means to consolidate their facilities³. What seems commonplace today was groundbreaking then. The gamble paid off! A new bank soon rose nearby, and in 1966, the federal government built a post office and U.S. Courthouse on the site of the old jail. Other Indiana communities took notice: Delaware County officials toured the complex while considering their own new courthouse in Muncie⁴, and Madison County representatives followed soon after⁵.

Designed by Walker, Applegate, Oakes & Ritz, the four-story, 70,000-square-foot City-County Building was strikingly modern. Its concrete skeleton supported a curtain wall of tinted glass, infill panels, and soaring aluminum mullions, while scalloped porticos sheltered its recessed entrances. Most distinctive are three enormous medallions suspended across the east facade, representing New Albany, the New Albany-Floyd County Building Authority, and Floyd County. For a building that replaced so much history, it quickly became historic in its own right. As a matter of fact, its design was innovative enough to land on the Indianapolis Star’s list of Indiana’s best new architecture in 1963⁶.

Still, time hasn’t been especially kind to the old City-County Building. Floyd County has grown substantially since 1961. Sixty years later, New Albany moved its municipal offices into what Indiana Landmarks calls “a rehabilitated historic warehouse⁷,” better known locally as the old Reisz Furniture building⁸. With the City-County Building’s third floor suddenly vacant, Floyd County began planning to remake the structure as a judicial center by expanding its circuit and superior courts, magistrate space, and criminal justice offices⁹.

Those plans eventually collided with the realities of a sixty-year-old building: aging systems, limited space, and the expense of bringing everything up to modern standards. After a unanimous vote in 2024¹⁰, officials began moving several county offices across the street into a former bank building across the street, the prominent four-story Chase building completed only thirty-two years ago¹¹. Floyd County bought it for $8 million in 2024¹² and relocated the auditor, treasurer, commissioners, Human Resources, and other administrative offices there¹³. A Chase branch appears to remain on the ground floor¹⁴.

It appears that the cost of renovating or replacing the old City-County Building would cost between $18 and $33 million¹⁵. I hope it isn’t demolished! More than sixty years on, the structure is a curious mix of old and new that begs to be saved from the fate of its predecessor. The building has become historic in its own right as a pioneering experiment in consolidated government, a catalyst for downtown redevelopment, and a model studied by officials across Indiana. There’s some irony in a building born from demolition now begging to be saved from the same fate, but that’s how preservation works: eventually, yesterday’s modern building becomes tomorrow’s irreplaceable landmark.

Sources Cited
1 “New Albany Builds Remedy for Decay” The Muncie Evening Press [Muncie] July 9, 1965: 1. Print
2 Vincent, K. (n.d.). Images for Cass County, Indiana. Courthouse History [North Carolina]. Web. Retrieved September 2, 2026.
3 City-County Building (2026). Indiana Landmarks [Indianapolis]. Web. Retrieved September 2, 2026. 
|4 “New Albany ‘Cure’” The Muncie Evening Press [Muncie] July 9, 1965: 3. Print
5 “Leaders Tour New Building” The Anderson Herald [Anderson] June 5, 1962: 1. Print
6 “Indiana’s Best in Modern Building Architecture” The Indianapolis Star [Indianapolis] September 22, 1963. 32. Print
7 (See footnote 3). 
8 Boyle, J. (2021, October 27). Floyd County government plans to move, reshuffle and build new offices. Louisville Public Media. Web. Retrieved September 2, 2026. 
9 Boyle, J. (2021, October 27). Floyd County government plans to move, reshuffle and build new offices. Louisville Public Media. Web. Retrieved September 2, 2026. 
10 Hansen, P. (2024, July 23). County officials purchase building for government office expansion. Louisville Business First. Web. Retrieved September 2, 2026.
11 120 W Spring St New Albany, IN 47150 (n.d.). LoopNet. Web. Retrieved September 2, 2026. 
12 County approves lease-financing to buy Chase Building for $8,000,650 (2024, September 9). Citizen Portal. Web. Retrieved September 2, 2026.
13 McAffee, B. (2026, March 30). Floyd County moves some offices into Chase building. The News and Tribune [Jeffersonville]. Web. Retrieved September 2, 2026. 
14 McAffee, B. (2026, April 9). Floyd County officials celebrate opening of new government The News and Tribune [Jeffersonville]. Web. Retrieved September 2, 2026. 
15 Vanderhoff, M. (2024, July 19). Floyd County buys new office building, considers courthouse renovations or rebuild. WLKY [Louisville]. Web. Retrieved September 2, 2026.