First Vigo County Court House

Description:	Drawing of the fist court house by Juliet A. Peddle, Terre Haute Architect and Artist. The First Court House Here. Drawing by Juliet A. Peddle, Terre Haute Architect and Artist.A COURT HOUSE building was one of the first matters which came up for consideration when it was established that Terre Haute was to be the county seat of Vigo county. The site which they selected was the same one which our court house occupies today, but in those days it was covered with large trees which had to be removed at some trouble and expense before they started construction on the new building. From the size of the trees shown in the drawing from which the above sketch was made, they must have removed all the old trees and then planted young ones, and one wonders why they did not keep at least some of the old forest trees on the square.Records of 1818 show that the construction of the building was started in that year, but it was 1822 before the lower floor was completed and not until later that the upper floor was finished. An illustration in Mr. Blackford Condits History of Early Terre Haute is the basis for the above drawing and I am going to quote from him a description of the building.The building was of brick and in size and architecture quite suitable for the purpose intended. The east door with its broad, arched transom was quite imposing. The interior was elaborately but plainly furnished with elevated box seats, rising one above the other, and reached by steps in the several aisles. The south side thus seated was for the accommodation of people. A center aisle ran through the center of the building from east to west, separating the north part of the room which was for the express use of the court. Here was the judges elevated bench or long desk, which was reached on either side by steps guarded by heavy railing; immediately in front of which on the floor, the lawyers had their long tables; while the jurors had their elevated box seats on the left of the judges bench.The courthouse served all of the usual functions of such a building and also as an auditorium for many public meetings and church gatherings when church groups had no buildings of their own.Col. Francis Vigo felt so pleasantly toward the people of this county who elected to name their county after him, that he left five hundred dollars in his will for a bell for the court house. It is said that the funds from his estate did not become available until some years after his death and this court house was already torn down, so the bell for which the money was designed never hung in the original court house but in the later one which we have today. Mr. Condits son climbed up into the belfry of the present court house and found the following inscription which bears this out: By His Will $500 of the Cost of This Bell were Presented by Francis Vigo to Vigo County, Indiana, A. D. 1887. By 1868 the building was felt to be unfit for use and was torn down and several years later replaced by the building we have today.Fifty years had produced a great many changes in the community. When the courthouse was built it was way ahead of its surroundings. By the time it was torn down the community had outgrown it and it was time for a new step into the future.
Origin:	01/01/2005
Contributor(s):	Peddle, Juliet, 1899-1979
Source:	http://indianamemory.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/rose/id/816
Collection:	Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Logan Library
Rights:	http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/
Copyright:	Copyright Undetermined
Subjects:	Architectural drawings Architecture Courthouses Architecture

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