2020’s Greatest Courthousery Posts

Here are the best posts I wrote about during this dismal year. Aren’t I clever? Ha.

The new year is nearly upon us, so I wanted to recap 2020’s best posts. Wait- these were originally ‘posted’ last year? Aww, you’re no fun.

I live in Muncie, where we’ve had two new courthouses since 1969 and are gearing up for our third -the county’s sixth- to open up next year in an old middle school. The courthouse most people lament is Brentwood Tolan’s 1887 Beaux Arts building, demolished ninety years later in a long-simmering fit of discontent that, unfortunately, lacks context in Muncie’s modern world of a largely-revitalized downtown. The posts that this entry centers around are from the fence of the 1887 courthouse lawn, and they’ve been moved around the county since its demolition. The two above are one of two pairs that frame the circular driveway of a private residence east of Royerton.

Two more posts are visible at the site of the fourth courthouse, now the Delaware County Building, a structure that holds most of the county’s administration offices. You can see those below above the stairs. I’d have taken a better photo had it not been for the transient propped up on one of them:

One more set of courthouse posts exists on the east side North Walnut Street -Center Pike- near the airport. These are shown, again, below. How these fenceposts from the former courthouse green got to their current surrounds is unknown to me, but it’s fun to still be able to find them- in addition to other relics of the old courthouse in Muncie that you can read about here.

There are a few more set of posts from the old courthouse to mention. These iron Newell posts were loaned to the Delaware County Historical Society when I volunteered there and curated a seasonal exhibit dedicated to the old courthouse. They came from one of the building’s primary staircases and are extremely ornate.

Here’s another view. How much would these cost to install in a modern courthouse? So much that they don’t do it anymore.

I have a couple of old postcards of the old Delaware County Courthouse. I hope you enjoy these scans and appreciate 2020’s most favorite posts here at Courthousery! May the new year be full of everything your best hopes and wildest dreams can provide. We’ll be back with scheduled programming first thing on Monday!