USA > Indiana > Indiana county courthouses of the nineteenth century > Part 2
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Similar fortuitous systems have occurred in the twentieth century : Dutch doors of aluminum for residences designed in any style. Portholes Kits (Buick) for Chevrolets.
Cadillac tail fins for Chevrolets.
Edward Stone sun screens for the N elevation.
Asbestos siding to simulate stone.
One of the earliest and now the oldest Greek Revival Courthouse in Indiana to be continuously occupied is the Ohio County Court- house at Rising Sun, 1845 (Plate 20). The architect is uncertain. It was probably inspired by the Greek Revival portico which was added to the George Washington Custis House (later Robert E. Lee) at Arlington, Virginia, ca. 1820-1826 by George Hadfield. The columns were copied from an unfinished Greek Classical Temple
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where the volutes had not been cut into the column shafts. It was archaeologically inaccurate, but the result was a new expression and one that was to be widely emulated.
This archaeological inaccuracy is the key to the significance of the Greek Revival Period in America. It was rarely an exact copy of Greek Classical examples, but rather an imaginative assimilation of forms for the solution of new building types. Great emphasis Wus placed on developing new structural systems that would result in fire- resistive construction and hence greater permanency.
The solutions expressed restraint, simplicity, and monumentality even if the building were modest in size, such as the courthouse at Rising Sun.
A strong similarity can be seen between the Jefferson County Courthouse at Madison, ca. 1848 by David Dubach (Plate 21), and the Switzerland County Courthouse at nearby Vevay (Plate 22).
The Jefferson County example was the precedent. The porticoes of both examples are similar: high bases with pierced arches sup- porting four slender columns. The orders and the proportions of the pediments are dissimilar. The Ionic order was employed on the Jefferson County example and the Corinthian was used on the Switzerland County solution. The angle of the raking cornice of the Switzerland County solution is a more accurate use of the classical element.
It is possible that the façade of the State House at Boston (Plate 28), 1795-1808, by Charles Bulfinch was the precedent for both solutions.
Other similarities between the Hoosier solutions are quite obvious: bay system, window fenestration, and scale. Indeed, the domes are identical except for minute details in the proportions of the cupolas (Plate 23 and Plate 24).
One of the most finely proportioned and detailed Greek Revival examples in Indiana is the Orange County Courthouse at Paoli, 1847-1850 (Plate 25). The architect is unknown. It is grandly sited on a gently sloping square defined by low commercial facilities at the periphery.
Behind the Greek Doric hexastyle portico, two open iron stairways rise from the main floor to the courtroom at the second floor. A similar stair system is employed to gain access from the finished
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grade to the first or main floor. Both stairways are defined by ornamental cast iron panels. The Paoli example is a very restrained, sophisticated, and monumental solution.
Another interesting example in the classical vocabulary is the St. Joseph County Courthouse at South Bend, 1854, by John Mills Van Osdel (1811-1891), the first architect to practice in Chicago and one of the first to practice in the Midwest. Fortunately, when a new courthouse was built in 1897, the old structure was moved to a new site and is now used as the headquarters of the Northern Indiana Historical Society (Plate 26).
Numerous other Indiana County Courthouses were built in the Classical Revival Style, several by the eminent Hoosier architect, John Elder. However, most if not all have been replaced by more recent constructions.
The Marshall County Courthouse at Plymouth, 1870, by Gurdon P. Randall ( ? 1884), (Plate 27), is unique in that it is not located in the business district but is sited on an ample square defined on all sides by a fine group of residences.
Mr. Randall was born in Vermont and studied under the eminent eastern architect, Asher Benjamin (1773-1845). Although Benjamin designed numerous buildings, his publications were of far greater importance since they established a high standard of design "that had a strong influence down to the Civil War."9
Mr. Randall lived in Chicago for thirty four years where he became a well-known architect. He designed a number of courthouses, several located in distant states.
The Marshall County Courthouse is an imaginative emulation of the works of James Gibbs and Robert Adam, two of the most distinguished architects of the eighteenth century. Randall used a raised portico defined by a series of arches in a manner not dissimilar to the system employed by Charles Bulfinch in the design of the State House in Boston (Plate 28), an example that Randall had often experienced while residing in Boston.
George W. Bunting (1829-1901) was without question the most prolific designer of county courthouses to reside in Indiana. He designed a minimum of seven Hoosier examples and others in Kansas (Sedgwick County), Michigan (Washtenaw County), West
9 Talbot Hamlin, "Greek Revival Architecture in America," Dover Publications Inc., N. Y., 1964 reprint, p. 95.
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Virginia (Harrison County), and Tennessee (Montgomery County). The latter group is a testament to his ability to seek out commissions at a great distance from the geographic area of his architectural practice.
Bunting was born in Pennsylvania, the son of a sea captain. He later attended Girard College, a most extraordinary institution. The will of Stephen Girard stated the entire moral and architectural program of the school. It stated that a 20'-0" high wall must be constructed around the site and that no member of the clergy be allowed on the grounds. The main building (Plate 29) was designed by Thomas Ustick Walter in 1833 and completed four years later at a cost of $2,000,000, an enormous sum for the time. The struc. tural system is fire resistive, the detailing is impeccable, and it is one of the finest monuments of the Greek Revival Style to have been built in the western world.
As a youth Bunting was also apprenticed to the shipbuilder's trade. His exposure to both architectural excellence and shipbuilding did much to prepare him for a career in architecture. He journeyed south and served as a colonel in the First Mississippi Cavalry during the Civil War. He then spent five years in Bloomington, Illinois, where he was engaged in the practice of architecture, prior to establishing an office in Indianapolis.
His son, George W. (the younger), later joined him in the practice of architecture and the firm of George W. Bunting and Son was established ca. 1886. At least two examples by George W. Bunting and Son were executed in the Richardsonian idiom. Both are virile and somewhat brutalistic.
The Wells County Courthouse at Bluffton, 1889 (Plate 2), is a brute of a building, with a massive outline and an asymmetrical cantilevered tower that has a polychromed checkerboarded band of stone defining the clock faces, a device often used by Richardson. The rear and side elevations are massive and well scaled. The courtroom is a fine space and has required only minor modifications over the years (Plate 30).
The Union County Courthouse at Liberty was built a year later, 1890, and although the façade is more symmetrical than the Bluffton example (Plate 31), the side elevations are bolder in scale and more brutal (Plate 32). The walls are expressed as a skeleton of stone
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more open in form than the Bluffton solution with great emphasis on the wall plane juxtaposed to the recessed plane of the windows. The result is a bold three-dimensional expression.
In sharp contrast to the Richardsonian solutions that we have just experienced, George W. Bunting designed several examples in the Eclectic mode that recalled Renaissance, Mannerism, Baroque, and the then current Second Empire Style.
The Johnson County Courthouse at Franklin, 1881-1882 (Plate 33), largely of red brick, is vigorously striped with contrasting white limestone. Other details-dentil blocks, columns, etc .- are picked out in the same light color. Numerous manneristic elements are employed in the solution (Plate 34).
The Clinton County Courthouse at Frankfort (Plate 35) and the Madison County Courthouse at Anderson (Plate 36) are more than similar. Both were designed by the same architect, George W. Bunting, and were under construction in the same year, 1882.
The only major difference is in the use of materials, stone at Frankfort and red brick with stone trim at Anderson, and that the broad flight of steps is absent in the Frankfort example (Plate 37 and Plate 38). A further similarity can be seen between the window details of the Franklin County and the Madison County examples. Indeed, it is somewhat unique that an architect would use the same set of plans in the same year for two courthouses of identical scale less than seventy miles apart.
The works of two additional architects are of more than passing interest.
Thomas J. Tolan (1831-1883) was from Carrolton, Ohio, and designed numerous buildings in the northwestern part of Ohio. In 1874 he moved with his family to Fort Wayne. With his son, he established the firm of Thomas J. Tolan & Son, Architects, and they specialized in the design of courthouses and jails. At the time of his death in 1883, the elder Tolan was the architect and building supervisor of the Hamilton County Courthouse at Chattanooga, Tennessee.
His son, Brentwood S. Tolan (1855-1923), came from Delphos, Ohio. Upon the death of his father (1883), the name of the firm was changed to B. S. Tolan, Architect.
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The La Grange County Courthouse at La Grange, 1878-1879 (Plate 39), was designed by Thomas J. Tolan; of that we can be almost certain. The building is nobly sited on a forested square with a hitching rail running almost the entire length of the west side of the site for the even now familiar Amish horse drawn carriages. The courthouse is symmetrical in plan and form with corner pavilions capped by mansarded roofs. A domed unit rises from the center of the composition. The town has changed only slightly over the years; hence, the courthouse dominates the city now as it did almost ninety years ago.
The Parke County Courthouse at Rockville, 1879-1880 (Plate 40), by T. J. Tolan & Son, laid the foundation for the design of both the Kosciusko and Delaware County courthouses. Similarities can be seen in all three solutions.
The Kosciusko County Courthouse at Warsaw (Plate 41), 1882, by Thomas J. Tolan and the Delaware County Courthouse at Muncie (Plate 42), 1885-1887, by Brentwood S. Tolan are similar in outline, form, and detail. It is quite probable that the younger Tolan designed both examples, although thus far this has been impossible to prove. In both examples a central cross axis is expressed as a massive projecting frontispiece which defines the main entrance. The orientation is the same in both solutions.
Through a closer inspection it is obvious that dissimilarities can be experienced (Plate 43 and Plate 44). The Delaware County Courthouse was elasticized vertically; thus, the main entrance (on the south elevation) was at grade level versus the broad flight of stairs used to gain access to the main floor at the Kosciusko County example. Thus, the higher base in the Delaware County Courthouse resulted in a more monumental solution and provided an additional floor of office space above the finished grade level compared to the sunken or basement sequence of spaces in the earlier Kosciusko County Courthouse.
The frontispiece of the Kosciusko County Courthouse is an emulation of the frontispiece of the Château Maison, nr. Paris, 1642-1646, by Francois Mansart. A similarity also is evident in the upper area of the frontispiece of both Indiana examples and the French solution.
Indeed, the upper mansarded element of the Delaware County
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Courthouse is reminiscent of the south front of the State War and Navy Building (Executive Offices) often referred to as Grant's Pile in Washington, D.C., 1871-1875, by Alfred Mullett, one of the most significant examples of the Second Empire Style in America.
The entrance of the Delaware County Courthouse was of greater girth, it is more positive, it states that this is the main entrance.
The window treatment in both Indiana examples is more than similar. In both examples the domes are similar in that they are both underscaled for their massive blocky bases. The dome of the Delaware County Courthouse is more plastic, is more finely detailed and less stilted.
Numerous other comparisons could be made between these Indiana examples, and there can be little doubt that the Kosciusko solution was the pilot study for the later and now no longer extant Delaware County solution.
Until its demolition in December of 1966, one of the most delightful ways to experience the Delaware County Courthouse was to walk north through the alley (Plate 44), a tight, narrow space, toward the south or main elevation. This same method of approach can be used in experiencing many of the Indiana court- houses. The element of surprise is dramatized, since only a narrow vertical segment of the structure can be experienced until one reaches the courthouse square. Then and only then can the entire structure be experienced. It is a space sequence system that has been often exploited in the history of architecture and one that even now has great importance.
The Delaware County Courthouse was finely detailed, and a monument of more than local significance. Indeed, it is difficult to experience an equally well-detailed and monumental public building in this part of the state. The views or vistas from the dome revealed the grain of the city and offered the finest panorama of the immediate area.
Fortunately, we have the predecessor of the Delaware County Courthouse. The example in Warsaw has been well preserved and continues to function quite well.
Indiana still has one of the finest assemblages of nineteenth- century courthouses in the Midwest, and they vividly express a
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variety of architectural concepts. They express the architectural skills and aspirations of America in the nineteenth century. Unfor- tunately, several examples have very recently been demolished, and an ever greater number will crumble under the repeated blows of the wrecker's ball in the future. Indeed, it would be fortuitous to suggest that all of these examples should be preserved and restored. One can only recommend that a more careful analysis of the nineteenth century county courthouses must be made if we are to retain one of the most significant phases of our heritage. They are tangible and can continue to afford us a rich architectural stimulus and experience for many decades.
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