Celebrating a century

It’s time for a birthday party.

Jay County will celebrate the centennial of its courthouse Oct. 24.

There will be an open house from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. that day, with light refreshments and three historical presentations.

Jane Ann Spencer and Janice Stucky of Jay County Historical Society will speak on the history of the county’s four different courthouses at noon, 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. in the courthouse auditorium.

It’s a far more modest celebration than the one in 1919 when the building was dedicated.

That party lasted four days, from Jan. 22 through Jan. 25, with speeches, live music and special tours for visitors.

Then again, in 1919 there was plenty to celebrate.

After all, the building had taken nearly three years to complete and had cost $350,497.32 — about $5.1 million in today’s dollars. Any estimate to build the same structure today would be off the charts.

Gov. Samuel M. Ralston was on hand for the laying of the courthouse cornerstone on Oct. 28, 1916, drawing a large and enthusiastic crowd though local historians recount that the governor’s arrival caught most Jay County citizens waiting at the wrong railroad station.

Designed by the Lima, Ohio, architectural firm of McLaughlin and Hulsken, the building celebrated this month was constructed by Dawson Construction of Pittsburgh. Strikingly different from courthouses in Blackford, Adams, Delaware and Randolph counties, the Jay courthouse has a somewhat smaller cousin in Mercer County, Ohio.

Outer material for the courthouse is Indiana limestone from Bedford, the same material later used to construct the Empire State Building, but the inner framework of the building is brick and steel.

On the interior, it seems that no expense was spared, and those decisions were not without some local political controversy and sniping at the time.

For instance, the railings on the staircase in the center of the building are topped with solid mahogany. The railings themselves were produced by the Art Metal Company of Jamestown, New York. Woodwork in the commissioners’ room is cherry, while much of the other woodwork is fumed oak.

Decorative marble floors, particularly on the central staircase, must have seemed an extravagance.

Two of the most stunning rooms must have drawn gasps from citizens back in 1919. The Jay Circuit Courtroom and the law library, both on the third floor, are as beautiful today as they were 100 years ago.

The third floor is also the home of four murals in arched locations that match the points of the compass.

The mural on the west depicts pioneer settlers John and Mary Brooks, who arrived in what would become Jay County in 1823.

The mural on the east presents a scene of early settlers, the Peter Studebaker family, chatting with native Americans.

The mural on the north side depicts a somewhat romanticized scene of local residents bidding farewell to Jay County men going off to fight in the Civil War. Local historians have noted that the dresses worn by the women depicted in the mural are much more pre-Civil War Southern in style than what would have been worn locally at the time.

The mural on the south side features a scene from the battle of Shiloh in the Civil War in which Jay County soldiers took part.

The murals are signed, “Schachne Studios, 1919.”

Schachne Studios was a well-known interior design firm based in Dayton, Ohio.

A poster from the time of construction names Schachne Studios as the decorator of the courthouse.

And the back of the poster carries the signatures of the artists and a whimsical message. It was apparently done when the work was completed and the crew had been celebrating.

It reads, “We the Undersigned Decorated this Court House in the War year 1918. It was severe weather, 15% (sic) below Zero and snow 8-12 feet high in Places. There was meatlesss days wheatless days and heatless days and the town dry as a bone even water quit running and no lights in the night, had to go to bed with the chickens and even the chickens in the Headington Hotel complained about the boneless nights, but all went to a nearby town called “Fort Recovery” and all recovered but one who lost his hat and was hunting same in the early morning. Outside of that the Undersigned must say that the (sic) were treated royal by the People of Portland, Ind.”

It is signed by about a dozen artists.

The Schachne poster and a copy of the back hang in a display case in the courthouse rotunda.

It is possible that the project was headed up by Vienna-born artist Emil Hermann, who was a muralist for the company until moving to Texas in 1919. Hermann was trained in Budapest and Amsterdam and came to the U.S. in 1889, becoming a U.S. citizen in 1890.

Those murals had darkened and become obscured when in 1969 Jay County Commissioners hired Henry Husmann of Husmann’s Decorating House to do an interior restoration and redecorating of the building.

A native of Germany, Husmann had come to Jay County in 1950 and became a citizen of the U.S. in 1953. Some of the additional painted décor on the third floor is original to Henry Husmann.

Historians Spencer and Stucky point out that the courthouse grounds, which are much higher than street level, are the result of thousands of tons of earth being hauled in to build the site up. Then — as now — flooding was a concern.

Unfortunately, with a two-level basement, that wasn’t enough. Flooding — and a lack of foresight — led to the loss of large numbers of old official records in 1989.

Historians also want to make it clear that the building being celebrated today is the fourth courthouse in the county’s history.

The first was built in 1837 at a cost of $123.25. A “long, low log structure,” it served the county for just two years. The builder was a man named Robert Huey.

The second was built in 1839 at a cost of $1,750. It was brick and was built by a man named Lewis N. Bryan. By then, Jay was officially a county on its own. This time around, the county seemed to get its money’s worth. The 1839 structure was used for 20 years.

That was followed by a period when the workings of county government and courts floated between a couple of different locations. One was known as Miller’s Hall and was located at the northeast corner of Main and Meridian streets. The other was known as Hickory Hall, which was located on the west side of the south 100 block of Meridian Street.

In 1870 a third courthouse was built. It stood at the site of the current building from that time until 1916. A brick structure, it featured a cupola clock tower and was based on a courthouse in Xenia, Ohio. The cost was $47,696.02, though it’s unclear what the extra two cents were for.

At any rate, it was a sound enough building to serve the county for nearly 46 years.

The current building has topped that record and seems ready to stand another 100 years.

It won applause at its dedication 100 years ago.

The Commercial Review wrote at the time, “Jay County citizens are proud of their new courthouse, and well they may be, for, according to state inspectors and other experts, as well as thousands of other people who have seen it, it is second to none other in Indiana or any other state, for that matter, and equaled by but very few. Nor is pride in the magnificent new structure confined alone to residents of Jay County. Hundreds from adjoining counties, from other parts of the state, and some from many other states, have examined the building and, with one accord, they all pronounced it magnificent.”

And many folks will assure you that that verdict still stands today.