You wouldn’t know it from all the cornfields, but Indiana is slowly turning into a suburban state. From 2015 to 2050, STATS Indiana projects that only 19 of our 92 counties will increase in population by more than 10%. Fourteen more will see population increases of up to 10%, and most are next to Indianapolis, Louisville, Cincinnati, Fort Wayne, South Bend, and Evansville1. Unfortunately, rural places like Jay County are projected to decline. That’s a shame since its county seat, Portland, is home to a fantastic courthouse.
Continue reading “The Jay County, Indiana Courthouse (1916-)”Tag neoclassical architecture
The Clay County, Indiana Courthouse (1914-)
I’m the only one of my siblings not to have been a foreign exchange student. Years after my brother’s trip to Brazil, though, it looks like I can finally say that the joke’s on him: here in the Hoosier state, a six-hour drive can take you all over the world from Mexico to Peru, Mecca, Brazil, Lebanon, Galveston and back- even cramming in a stop at Kokomo to see the Beach Boys on your way home.
Continue reading “The Clay County, Indiana Courthouse (1914-)”The Hendricks County, Indiana Courthouse (1912-)
Though its 1824 founding predated the start of the TV show by a hundred and thirty-six years, Danville, Indiana has a real affinity for the Andy Griffith Show, or at least Mayberry, the site of Andy and Barney’s foibles on CBS. How do I know this? There’s the Mayberry Cafe for starters, a local institution right on Danville’s courthouse square for the past 31 years. Brad Born, the owner and operator of the restaurant, really loves the fictional place. “He always wanted to live in a place like Mayberry,” his wife Christine says, “and we’ve found the people in Danville are about as decent and loyal as you’d find in Mayberry1.”
Continue reading “The Hendricks County, Indiana Courthouse (1912-)”The Carroll County, Indiana Courthouse (1917-)
Indiana courthouses have gone through a couple of distinct architectural phases. Once log and frame structures fell out of favor and brick became the norm in the teens and early 1820s, early courthouses were surpassed by simple Greek Revival structures like the courthouses found in Rising Sun, Paoli, and Nashville. With some exceptions, Second Empire became the stylistic norm after the Civil War, followed by Richardson Romanesque and Beaux Arts towards the end of the century. Starting around 1905, the preferences of county officials changed yet again, leading to the Classical Revival, or Neoclassical, era. A few Art Deco courthouses later, we now find ourselves firmly entrenched in the modern period, though that can also be split up if you feel like being extra pedantic.
Continue reading “The Carroll County, Indiana Courthouse (1917-)”The Lawrence County, Indiana Courthouse (1870/1930-)
Have you ever wanted to tear down an old courthouse but couldn’t because of an obscure law dictating that the courthouse square had to hold a courthouse at all times or else its ownership would revert to the heirs of the guy who deeded it to you in the first place more than a century ago?
Continue reading “The Lawrence County, Indiana Courthouse (1870/1930-)”The Pike County, Indiana Courthouse (1922-)
I like to go fishing- to me, there’s nothing better than a cool morning with a spinning reel tied to a heavy Texas rig or a hot afternoon errantly sending a drone down underwater to scare all the fish away, as it happens. Without the submersible, 2022 was tough down at the banks, though: I haven’t gone fishing at all! But reviewing this post reminded of the time I received a voucher for $5.03 towards a purchase of three or more cans of tuna as part of the settlement of Hendricks v. Starkist Co.
Continue reading “The Pike County, Indiana Courthouse (1922-)”