The Shelbyville Republican
Tuesday, February 5, 1935
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PUBLIC SQUARE HERE WAS SITE
OF OLD COURT HOUSE
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Few Shelby county residents know that their court house was once located in the center of the Public Square, where the Joseph fountain now stands. Few indeed, remember it was there.
It was “way back” prior to 1852 that the business life of the “town of Shelbyville” teemed about the building that housed the county government.
A foray into musty county records in a search for data relating to the age of the building, etc., was inspired by a fairly general belief that the present structure should be replaced-or at least remodeled and enlarged in accordance with a plan presented by John Scheffler, member of the county council.
In 1852 the county commissioners authorized the building of the new edifice “of sufficient size to house the county offices.”
On paper yellowed with age and written in script graying from the same cause, the records set forth the various plans and specifications to be followed in the erection of the edifice; even the amounts of lime, brick, cement, stone and iron to be used are set forth laboriously in longhand.
The plot in South Harrison street, bounded by Polk, Taylor and Tompkins streets, was selected as the site for the building. The plot was then at the extreme south edge of the “town.”
The total cost of the building could not be found in the crumbling record book, but a notation of $4,500 being appropriated for the initial payment was found.
Records do not disclose the character of the ancient court house that preceded the present one, but it is understood that it was decidedly a small building that had been entirely outgrown at the time the present structure was built.
The court house now in use was completed in 1852, and was remodeled 26 years later, in 1878. Commissioners at the time it was built were John Kern, James F. Rule and Thomas Claton. At the time it was remodeled, commissioners were Ithamer Davison, Nicholas Bailey and D. T. Culbertson.
Submitted by Barb Huff
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