I went on a mission to visit every historic courthouse in Indiana about a decade ago. Along the way, and especially toward the end, I began to notice how many old county jails survived as well. I only managed to take photos of a few of them, but I did stop in Greenfield for a look at Hancock County’s. The Second Empire structure remains impressive more than a century and a half after it was completed!

I came to the idea of photographing Indiana’s old jails and sheriff’s residences far later than I probably should have. Between 2011 and 2017, I set out to visit every historic courthouse in Indiana. Towards the end, I realized just how many of those early county jails are still standing! I doubt I’ll make it out to some of the state’s most far-flung communities again to capture them all, but I did manage to stop in Columbia City and snap several shots of the old Whitley County Jail. It’s a striking structure.

Spotting an old grain elevator rising above the rooftops of a small town is fun. Once the lifeblood of local agriculture, the towering structures served as anchors to many rural communities! Unfortunately, time hasn’t been kind to most old grain elevators. Fires claimed many, neglect eroded others, and the steady march of agricultural consolidation funneled business away to larger, centralized operations that left the small-town landmarks obsolete.