winchester indiana july 25 2008

Winchester, Indiana

July 25, 2008

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Winchester, Indiana is the seat of Randolph County. Population as of the 2000 census was 5,037. The 2000 census lists the county's population as 27,401.

Perhaps the most striking public artifact in Randolph County is the Civil War Monument on the courthouse square. The monument's bronzes were created by Lorado Taft, one of America's preeminent sculptors of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Taft created the monuments at Gettysburg and designed the sculptures for the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and some of his works still adorn Chicago parks; among them is the recently restored Fountain of Time at the west end of the 59th Street Plaisance, site of the midway of the 1893 exposition.

The 1875 Randolph County Courthouse has been the focus of controversy and widespread publicity over the past few years. The controversy came from the commissioners' 2-to-1 vote in 2005 to resolve space and maintenance issues by demolishing it and building a new county government building on the site, and the publicity came from the activism of seven members of the Farmland Bridge Club, ranging in age from their seventies to their nineties, who posed nude (with a scale replica of the courthouse strategically positioned) for a calendar to raise funds for preservation efforts.

As of July, 2008, the commissioners have reversed their decision to demolish the courthouse, and have voted for a bond issue to fund restoration of the existing building and construction at the rear of an annex, connecting the two buildings with a bridge and elevator.

Architect J.C. Johnson was a Fremont, Ohio, carpenter who taught himself architecture. He designed courthouses in Defiance County, Ohio (Defiance), Adams County, Indiana (Decatur), and Winchester, that I know of, so far, and a county jail in Whitley County, Indiana (Columbia City). All three courthouses were built to nearly identical plans, and all three have lost their original towers. Only Adams County's retains its Mansard roof.

From early on, the swaying and groaning of Randolph County Courthouse's tower in heavy winds made workers apprehensive, but it wasn't until 1955 that the county hired Bluffton, Indiana, contractor Herman Reiff to make changes. He removed the tower and the Mansard roof, gave the building a flat roof, and sandwiched a third floor into the top half of the high-ceilinged former second floor.

As early as 1895 Adams County Commissioners hired Brentwood J. Tolan, designer of Allen County's magnificent 1905 Beaux Arts courthouse, to fix similar problems with their building. Tolan removed Johnson's centrally-located tower and replaced it with a tower of a more massive design over the main entrance, where it had the support of a bearing wall. Assuming that the Adams County Courthouse originally had a portico like that of Randolph County's, possibly it was removed at the time of Tolan's renovation.

A rendering by Fort Wayne architectural firm MartinRiley, showing a proposal for an annex, clock tower and restored Mansard roof for the existing building.

The opposed spiral stairs from the second floor to the first both rotate clockwise, looking down. The chandeliers are pretty definitely from the 1955 remodeling. I recall seeing others very similar, from that same period.

The black and white floor tiles are original. I don't know if they're marble, but where there were holes from former steam pipes I could see that they're some kind of mineral. I've seen these in other courthouses of the era.

A painting of the courthouse as it appeared before the 1955 desecration adorns the first-floor corridor. Display board set up in middle of the corridor prevented me from getting a head-on photo.

Extensive utility work was being done in Main Street. I don't know what they're preparing for, but I speculate that streetscape improvements may be in the works.

I saw several Model T Ford cars roll through town, and when one of the stopped for a while, I asked the driver what the occasion was. He said that in neighboring Richmond, Indiana, there was a gathering of nearly 1,000 of the cars, observing the 100th anniversary of the introduction of that model by Henry Ford. They were on one of their daily area tours.

Exploring the square and nearby streets.

This building was once a hotel; I stayed there one night in 1973.

Extreme Fixer-Upper. I wonder how many generations of termites were raised there before it collapsed.

Odd Fellows' Building.

Improved Order of Red Men bills itself as the oldest fraternal order in America. I haven't seen buidings with their symbol in very many of the midwestern small towns, whereas Odd Fellows and Masons are nearly ubiquitous.

Another Saturday Night ...

Sandstone sidewalks remain in a few places around town. Some that I saw were in better condition than this one.

Handsome 1915 public library. The modern annex behind doesn't show up in these photos.

James P. Goodrich (1864-1940) was Governor of Indiana 1917-1921

The depot was built about 1907 by the Big Four Railroad, which later became part of the New York Central System. The tracks still active and are now owned by CSX. The lights were on, there was a car parked outside, and several trucks bearing the CSX logo were in the parking lot.