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The courthouses of northeast Indiana vary in their style, but all have one thing in common — they are living, active pieces of history for the counties they serve.
From the spectacular rotunda of the DeKalb County Courthouse to Steuben County, where the courthouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places; from the Noble County Courthouse’s recent restoration of murals and search for a judge’s photo to the work to restore the courtrooms of the LaGrange County Courthouse, these central buildings in each county allow residents to see history in a setting where government continues to function.
In terms of age, the DeKalb County Courthouse is the youngest, being the only of the four built in the 20th Century. The oldest is Steuben County’s closely followed by LaGrange County’s.
Another thing the four counties have is that the current courthouse is not the first. Early courthouses were small and built of wood. Those not destroyed in catastrophic fires were usually replaced as the county outgrew them, and as counties came to desire grander structures for the county seat, bigger and better courthouses were built.
Steuben County
The Steuben County Courthouse that exists today was constructed in 1867, according to a county history. It replaced a stick-frame building that had been used to conduct county business.
Its Italianate, Greek Revival and Romanesque architecture as originally constructed was a replica of Faneuil Hall in Boston. An addition was put on the south end of the courthouse in 1937. The addition housed the Steuben County Auditor’s office and county commissioners meeting room in those days.
In May 1975, the building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places
In 1981, the courtrooms were totally remade. The second floor was divided in two, which created a third floor where the Steuben Circuit Court was located. What was then the Steuben County Court — now the Steuben Superior Court — was housed on the second floor.
The 1937 addition was converted to another courtroom in the 1990s. It serves the Steuben Magistrate’s Court. At one time, all the county’s business was done in the courthouse, but today it contains only the courts themselves.
The building — especially the third floor — contains historical engravings, including one of President Abraham Lincoln. There are also numerous historic photos from the court, including one featuring the first jury to include women ever seated in Steuben County.
LaGrange County
The LaGrange County Courthouse was the second built in the town of LaGrange, but the third built in LaGrange County, according to “History of LaGrange County Ind. Court House” by Gene Plasterer. The first was in the town of Lima — now Howe. Both early courthouses were frame buildings and the latter was deemed inadequate by 1877.
By Aug. 15, 1878, the foundations of the current courthouse were laid. Items placed in the cornerstone included the county’s 1832 organizing acts, the docket of the Lagrange Circuit Court, the county directory, area newspapers, several coins and six Confederate postage stamps found in a rebel camp in Virginia.
The county took possession of the building on Nov. 13, 1879. In those days, the clerk’s, recorder’s, sheriff’s, commissioners’, auditor’s and treasurer’s offices were on the first floor, along with a taxpayers’ room where people didn’t have to wait to pay their property taxes. The upstairs housed all the rooms affiliated with the circuit court.
In 1971, the LaGrange County Commissioners ordered that the courthouse be beautified. Brick- and stonework was repaired or restored and the dome was given a coat of gold.
Part of the restoration included removing drop ceilings and reworking the courtrooms, said LaGrange County historian and LaGrange County Historical Society president Ezra S. Miller. That included restoring a duplicating a mural that had been on the ceiling of the Circuit Courtroom.
“Carl Moser was the artist and he laid on his back,” Miller recalled. Moser laid out a photo of the mural on the floor and painted it above, being careful to strictly follow his source material. Miller said the artist did a great job.
Noble County
Moser was also one of the artists who worked on recent mural restoration work at the Noble County Courthouse, along with Darlene Bender.
The courthouse was completed in June 1889, according to “History of the Noble County Courthouse, Albion, Indiana,” published in 2008 by the Noble County Courthouse Preservation Society Inc. It followed two other Noble County courthouses — the first destroyed by a fire, and the second condemned by a grand jury in 1887.
In May 1889, one of the Noble County Commissioners traveled to Chicago to acquire four mantles, four hearths and four grates for the courthouse. The commissioners of the time also contracted with U.S. Encaustic Tile Co. of Indianapolis for the tiles for the courthouse floor. Frescoing the courtrooms and corridors was done by Mitchell & Halbach of Chicago.
It was lighted from basement to attic by 280 jets from gas burners on an August 1889 evening — quite a spectacle for the time. The courthouse design was well enough received that Williams County, Ohio, based its courthouse on Noble County’s.
The building was wired for electricity in 1903. The following year, O.J. Cover & Son of Fort Wayne was hired to fresco, paint and decorate the courthouse, and Giovannia Gioscio, an Italian artist who had emigrated to Indiana, painted four murals of U.S. presidents Washington, Andrew Jackson, Lincoln and the recently-assassinated William McKinley on the second floor.
A courthouse centennial celebration was held in 1988. Fifteen years later, renovation began on the Noble Circuit Courtroom. Thanks to the efforts of the county’s judges, historical pictures and maps decorate the courthouse, and each courtroom has likenesses of all the previous judges for whom they are known to exist. Only Circuit Judge Arthur F. Biggs is missing — no known picture of him exists.
DeKalb County
The DeKalb County Courthouse, built in 1911, is designed in an Ionic Greek architecture. It boasts a Florentine glass dome illuminated by day via sunlight and at night by 60 electric lights.
Under the dome is a veteran’s memorial dedicated to all who have served in the military from DeKalb County. On the courthouse lawn is another memorial, this one devoted to veterans of the Spanish-American War.
The courts in the courthouse occupy the top floor, with other offices below.
A technological marvel in its day, the courthouse boasted a Master Clock built in 1912 that still controls every clock in the building that’s part of the system as originally installed, and a built-in vacuum system. A hose connected to a pillar along the rotunda could be used to vacuum an entire floor before the system ceased operating many years ago.
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