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.

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. 

If there’s one Ohio courthouse that stopped me in my tracks on my travels, it’s Butler County’s in downtown Hamilton. It may not be the biggest, flashiest, or most photographed in the state, but it’s probably my favorite of the forty or fifty I’ve visited. Maybe it’s because of its mix of elegance and endurance: this building has seen nearly everything a courthouse can see: fire, flood, lightning strikes, and over a century of civic life unfolding right outside its doors! Or maybe it’s its weird clock tower.

I’d only made it to Ohio’s western courthouses before a cousin’s wedding took me to the West Virginia mountains. The best way to get there from here was I-70, and I just had to stop at a string of courthouses on my way back to mark my path across the state. One was Muskingum County’s in Zanesville, Ohio. The striking structure was just visible from the interstate, but monumental up close. 

Few landmarks capture Ohio’s early history quite like the Ross County Courthouse in downtown Chillicothe. Grand but approachable with a stately portico and an intriguing lineup of offices that seem to blend 19th-century formality with small-town practicality, the building stands on ground that helped shape the state itself.

My mom, stepdad, and I were hunting flowing wells in Sevier County, Tennessee, when we stumbled into neighboring Blount County. Naturally, our curiosity kicked in. After all, every county has a seat, and every seat has a courthouse. Since photographing and researching courthouses is a cornerstone of this blog, there was only one thing to do: head for Maryville and see what we could find.

Long before Sevierville became the bustling gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains, it was a quiet, isolated community surrounded by forest. Reaching it meant solitary winds along rough roads that hugged the rivers and foothills- far removed from the kind of traffic the town sees in modern times. All of that is what makes its towering courthouse so remarkable! It’s a bold architectural statement even today.

A couple of weeks ago, Visit Fort Wayne rolled out its “Be a Tourist in Your Own Hometown” program, which throws open the doors to some of the city’s best-known landmarks. For one afternoon, people get to step inside places like the Lincoln Bank Tower, the Embassy Theatre, the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, and the Botanical Conservatory- all for free! My Aunt Connie and I took advantage of the opportunity seven years ago and spent the day exploring the Allen County Courthouse. I snapped a handful of quick iPhone shots to remember the incredible building by.