Via Kemplog and Richmond’s Palladium-Item is an editorial from Indiana Chief Justice Randall Shepard arguing, in light of Randolph County’s recent vote to destroy its courthouse, that our courthouses deserve honor, not demolition.
In most Hoosier county seats, the three tallest structures historically were the grain elevator, the church and the courthouse. Despite our skyscraping capability, this remains true in a remarkable number of our 92 counties.
The grain elevator visibly declares the dominance of agriculture, an industrial engine that remains an important aspect of the state’s economy. The soaring church steeple, erected at great expense by contributions from the congregation, documents our forebears’ belief in God and gratitude for the blessings of their American lives. The towering courthouse symbolizes their hopes for the creation of a just society.
The British call such structures “government houses.” Ignoring inherited terminology, Americans labeled these buildings courthouses, suggesting that the dispensing of justice was a higher aspiration. The term reflects what the founders of our country hoped for when they wrote the Declaration of Independence.
Considering the years in which most of Indiana’s current courthouses were built — the 1870s through the 1890s — the sheer size and elegance tells you a great deal about the importance people gave to constructing the place where justice is dispensed. The expenditure of hundreds of thousands in 1880 reflected the serious level of commitment to what our 19th Century counterparts considered the most elevating of our civic activities.
Part II of Justice Shepard’s column is available here.
A look at our past reminds me of a discussion I had with my dad when I was a teenager. Richmond was struggling with trying to repair the “G” Street Bridge, a pretty significant structure spanning the Whitewater Gorge. Through most of my teen years, it seemed that Richmond was struggling with simply maintaining its infrastructure. So, it occurred to me to ask how we ever afforded to build it in the first place. Dad didn’t really have an answer for me, but looking back on it, I wonder if it was a matter of having more resources in the past or if citizens were simply willing to put more of their resources into their communities when our cities and basic infrastructure was being built.
In any event, I have no knowledge of the Randolph County case. (links are to pictures of the respective courthouses.) I just know that I get to work in the Tippecanoe County courthouse. I’m exceedingly happy that the folks in Tippecanoe County decided to restore that magnificent structure rather than demolish it. I have occasion to work in White County and Cass County from time to time, and going to court in those counties just isn’t the same. In defense of White County, its courthouse was destroyed by a tornado. I’d also be very upset if the Wayne County courthouse was destroyed. It’s a pretty notable structure.
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