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Monday, August 29, 2005

Ind. Courts - "Virtual Tours" of Indiana's Courthouses

A press release from the Indiana Supreme Court today announces:

“VIRTUAL TOURS” OF INDIANA’S COURTHOUSES PREMIERES WITH FOUR COURTHOUSES

An extensive project that is designed to showcase the beauty and history of Indiana’s courthouses and to help people find their way through an unfamiliar building through online “virtual tours” is now underway, Chief Justice Randall T. Shepard announced today.

Eventually, the project will try to include virtual tours of each courthouse in Indiana’s 92 counties, all of which are historically significant, and many of which are aesthetically and architecturally significant.

As of today, virtual tours of the courthouses in Brown, Hancock, Johnson and Randolph County, can be viewed online.

Each page includes a 360° virtual tour created with interactive imaging, a still photo gallery, the courthouse hours and address with a link that provides a map and driving directions, and information about handicap accessibility and parking. In addition, the Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana has provided historical information about each courthouse. For many courthouses, vintage postcards have been located and are also posted on the page.

Chief Justice Shepard predicted the virtual tours would be useful for many people. “We had two goals for this project. Our first was historic preservation and education but we also wanted to offer this as a service to litigants so they can familiarize themselves and their children with the courthouse before going to court,” he said.

Photography by William Wolfred at more than a dozen other courthouses has been completed and is in the process of being converted to virtual tours.

Here is the link to the main tour page, Virtual Courthouse Tours. And here are links to the four counties completed so far: Brown, Hancock, Johnson and Randolph County. From the Randolph County page:
The current Randolph County courthouse was built between 1875-77 in the Second Empire style, with a Mansard roof and clock tower that were removed in the early 1950s. J.C. Johnson, a Fremont, Ohio, carpenter who taught himself architecture, designed not only the Randolph county courthouse, but the courthouse in neighboring Adams County as well. Johnson's building is the third courthouse commissioned by Randolph county taxpayers. The first courthouse, built in 1828, was abandoned by the county for a newer building on the north side of the square in the 1850s. The courthouse square was built in the Shelbyville plan.

Earlier this year, the Randolph County Commission voted to wreak havoc on the Winchester Courthouse Square Historic District by voting to tear down the 128-year-old county courthouse. If the Randolph County Courthouse falls, it will be the first loss in Indiana since the Cass County Courthouse was leveled nearly 30 years ago. Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana, as well as preservationist around the state, including Chief Justice Randall Shepard, have been outspoken in their opposition to the commission's decision.

Among those working to save the courthouse, none can trump the Winchester Bridge Club ladies for audacity. To call attention to the cause, the club members have posed—showing all their cards, so to speak, but holding strategically placed models of the courthouse—for a fundraising calendar . Even before the calendar has been published, the ladies have more than accomplished their mission of drawing local and even national attention to the courthouse.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 29, 2005 01:04 PM
Posted to Indiana Courts