Tag clock tower

The Noble County, Indiana Courthouse (1887-)

Ted Shideler 2 Comments
Read time: 7 min.

I’ve admired the Noble County Courthouse in Albion since I was a kid. I remember driving past it with my dad and even going inside it for some reason. Even at a young age, I knew the courthouse was unique: it didn’t resemble any others in the state and though I seem to recall a taxidermy display in its basement, I never expected the building to tell an intricate tale of geopolitical maneuverings. Of course, that’s what I found when I started researching it.

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Indiana’s 1839 Greene County Courthouse cupola

Ted Shideler 1 Comment
Read time: 5 min.

Greene County’s first courthouse in Bloomfield was a log structure built in 1825. Nine years later, county officials ordered the building’s foundation be repaired “so as to prevent the hogs from disturbing the court or any other public business1.” By 1835, county commissioners decided to build another courthouse. Today, all that remains of the second structure is its cupola. It’s been used as a lawn ornament for the past hundred and thirty-seven years2!

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The Adams County Courthouse in Indiana (1872-)

Ted Shideler 2 Comments
Read time: 6 min.

Indiana is littered with counties that have been forced to decapitate their courthouses over the years due to natural disasters or structural problems. Although you wouldn’t know it today at first glance, Adams County’s in Decatur is one of them. Its architect, J.C. Johnson, seemed particularly bad at designing clock towers. I guess that’s what’s bound to happen when you’re a self-taught courthouse architect1.

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The Blackford County Courthouse in Indiana (1894-)

Ted Shideler 2 Comments
Read time: 7 min.

Although it’s been long since bypassed by the interstate, Indiana State Road 3 still provides a scenic route through the countryside of northeastern Indiana that can be traveled pretty fast. I became acquainted with the road from trips to visit family during my childhood, but it took constant weekend drives back home to Muncie from my Fort Wayne apartment to become really close with it. Without question, the highway’s most prominent landmark is the Blackford County Courthouse in Hartford City. I eventually wondered how such an impressive courthouse wound up in a county seat that seemed so small.

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The Marshall County, Indiana Courthouse (1872-)

Ted Shideler 3 Comments
Read time: 6 min.

Studies show that the presence of a historic courthouse on an old-fashioned square acts as an anchor that draws people towards downtown1. County seats in Indiana feature three kinds: the Shelbyville Square, which takes the form of a regular city block; the Lancaster Square, which resembles an enlarged traffic circle; and the Harrisonburg Square, which combines the other two types2. The historic Marshall County Courthouse in Plymouth doesn’t sit on a square. It doesn’t even sit downtown! Nevertheless, the building has thrived outside its natural ecosystem for a hundred and fifty years.

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The Allen County, Indiana Courthouse (1902-)

Ted Shideler 2 Comments
Read time: 9 min.

The Allen County Courthouse in Fort Wayne is the most magnificent in Indiana. There aren’t even many state capitols that match its opulence! In fact, the courthouse towers over thirty of them. Completed in 1902, the courthouse was designed to anticipate the needs of Allen County for at least a century as the crown jewel of Fort Wayne. Its completion was such an enormous event that no less than Teddy Roosevelt, the President of the United States, was scheduled to speak at its dedication1.

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The Branch County, Michigan Courthouse (1976-)

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Read time: 8 min.

Have you ever heard the story of Timothy Dexter, the world’s luckiest idiot? A rube from Massachusetts, he made his first fortune by buying up huge sums of worthless Contintental currency that the government unexpectedly made good on after the American Revolution. Fortune in hand, he took his jealous rivals’ sarcastic advice to send bed warmers and woolen mittens to the tropical West Indies. Amazingly, the bed warmers were sold as molasses ladles and the mittens were gobbled up by Asian merchants to export to Siberia1! Other transactions involving sending gloves to Polynesia, Bibles to the East Indies, and stray cats to the Caribbean all worked out in his favor, and Timothy Dexter died a rich man in 1806. I mention the guy because it’s only by a similar series of events that the town of Coldwater, Michigan ever became the seat of Branch County.

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The Ripley County, Indiana Courthouse (1863-)

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Read time: 8 min.

Hoosiers like to celebrate our accomplishments. When we complete civic projects, the festivities often include things like ribbon-cuttings, speeches from dignitaries, balloons, music, and even fireworks. Pretty low on the list of a typical commemorative event is s 2,000-person confederate raid, but that’s what the Ripley County Courthouse in Versailles went through in 1863 just as construction was wrapping up.

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The Jennings County Courthouse in Indiana (1857-)

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Read time: 8 min.

Historic courthouses have taken me to some teensy places, including some that don’t even exist on a map. Hamlets like Rome, Wilmington, and Fredonia -all thriving county seats two hundred years ago- have long since become bypassed, eclipsed, and largely forgotten. But some tiny county seats remain home to active courthouses, and the smallest of all is the town of Vernon in Jennings County. Only 236 people live there as of the 2020 census.

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