Though it was built 70 years before Columbus became an architectural hotspot, it’s fitting that the Indiana town is home to the most elaborate surviving Second Empire style courthouse in the state. For a style often characterized by cartoonish proportions and pompous ornamentation in a lame attempt to project importance, the Bartholomew County Courthouse is even pretty attractive. The jail went up first, built in 1871, with the courthouse completed in 1874—modern punishment first, then modern justice, I guess. Both buildings were designed by architect Isaac Hodgson. Overcrowded and obsolete, the jail was demolished in 1966, but the courthouse is still in use for its original purpose 152 years later.

Color linen postcard on the left of an ornate red brick and white and green building with a tower with a clock and a shorter building next to it with a wraparound porch. Photo on the right, bigger building looks basically the same, the smaller building is gone.
Circa 1940 postcard, Tichnor Brothers Collection, Boston Public Library via Digital Commonwealth | 2023 photo

So, what’s changed?

  • Well, the jail building is gone, as is the block on the far right, now home to Columbus Commons.
  • The courthouse lost the dormer windows in its shorter mansard roof, along with some of the ornamentation around the clock.
  • Cars have really grown in size, man. 

Columbus, the county seat of Bartholomew County, had already outgrown three county jails when they hired Belfast-born, Indianapolis-based architect Isaac Hodgson to build them a new one. It was completed in 1871, by which point Hodgson—already responsible for four county courthouses in Indiana (the Morgan [1857], Miami [1858], Jennings [1861], and Henry County courthouses)—was working on his plans for the new Bartholomew County Courthouse. 

Real photo postcard of the Morgan County Courthouse in Martinsville, Indiana, completed in 1857, Indiana Historical Society | Postcard of the (demolished) Miami County Courthouse in Peru, Indiana, completed in 1858 | Postcard of the Jennings County Courthouse in Vernon, Indiana, completed in 1861 | Postcard of the Henry County Courthouse in New Castle, Indiana, completed in 1869 | Postcard of the Bartholomew County Courthouse in Columbus, Indiana, completed in 1874, the Indiana Album | 1907 photo of the (demolished) Marion County Courthouse in Indianapolis, Library of Congress

Red brick with limestone trim, a characteristically Second Empire mansard roof, and completed in 1874, the building in Columbus was a warmup for Hodgson’s biggest courthouse—the old Marion County Courthouse in Indianapolis, built in 1876 and demolished in 1963. French-inspired and enabled by new possibilities in mass-produced architectural ornament, the Second Empire style exploded across the United States in the latter half of the 1800s. 

The day-to-day practice of law changed less over the decades than the requirements of incarceration. By the early 1900s, the county had added a front porch to the jail building, which had sections for men, women, and—later—for kids (“juveniles”). A 1928 renovation brought the courthouse up to modern speed, along with a 1953 renovation that replaced the slate roof with copper (this was also when the clocktower lost some of its ornamentation and some of the dormer windows disappeared).

1870s, NYPL via Wikimedia Commons | Archival photo from a 1981 article | 1950, criticisms of jail | 1959, prisoners sleeping in shifts | 1959, state asks for new jail | 1961, BCSD History compiled and edited by Deputy M. Henderson | 1965, group would save jail | 1965, fate sealed | 1966, demolition

By the 1950s the jail was obsolete—horribly overcrowded, with prisoners sleeping in shifts—and the state criticized Bartholomew County annually for the unacceptable state of affairs. The county finally scrounged up funding for a new one, and the replacement jail nearby opened in 1962, kicking off a mild preservation battle for the old one. The county considered proposals to turn it into a museum, but with the structure of the cells literally foundational to its structural integrity, it would’ve been impossible to keep as anything other than an old-timey jail museum, so they demolished it in 1966. 

The courthouse was renovated again in 1968 and 1998 to keep it up to date with modern uses. In 1978 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The 1960s replacement jail was demolished in the 1990s, with the site turned into parkland to preserve views of the courthouse and create space for the (incredibly well done, deeply moving, even arguably courageously anti-war) Bartholomew County Memorial for Veterans.

1976 article with an archival construction photo | 1880, Bass Photo Co Collection, Indiana Historical Society | 1939 postmarked postcard, John D. Rondot Collection, the Indiana Album | 1951, David Yount Collection, the Indiana Album | 1971 place mat, Ruthanna & Howard Montgomery Family Collection, the Indiana Album | 1971, old courthouses | 1973, Declan Haun, Environmental Protection Agency via Wikimedia Commons | 1993, keepers of a landmark | 2011, Carol Highsmith, Library of Congress

Production Files

Further reading:

The Bartholomew County, Indiana Courthouse (1874-)
Columbus is home to a superb collection of remarkable architecture- it almost has to be to live up to its nickname, “the Athens of the Prairie!” Standout architects like I.M. Pei, Elder and Eero Sa…
Hiding in Plain SightTed Shideler
Isaac Hodgson - Encyclopedia of Indianapolis
(Dec. 16, 1826-May 17, 1909). Born in Belfast, Ireland, Isaac Hodgson attended the Belfast Royal Academy. At age 16, he… Read More »Isaac Hodgson
Encyclopedia of IndianapolisEncyclopedia of Indianapolis