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Monday, July 07, 2008
Ind. Courts - Monroe County Courthouse nearly razed in the 1980s
"County courthouse at center of celebration" was the headline of a July 2 story ($$) in the Bloomington Herald-Times:
The star of the Fourth of July parade in downtown Bloomington Friday will be the building the parade will pass by in the center of the city.The Monroe County Courthouse’s 100th birthday is being celebrated, with the county commissioners leading the parade and a replica of the courthouse featured on a float. Cake will be served on the courthouse lawn after the parade to celebrate the centennial of the county’s most recognizable building.
There was a time, in the early 1980s, when this celebration was in jeopardy.
Charlotte Zietlow was a county commissioner at the time, and she sent the H-T a long reminder of what occurred. The county needed more space, and many in the community were proposing tearing down the courthouse and moving county government out of downtown.
That didn’t happen, of course, through the efforts of Zietlow and many other community members who took part in the Let’s Save It campaign. They believed that saving the grand old building would be in the best interests of the citizens of the county.
They were right. The courthouse was restored in 1983-84, and stands now, 100 years after it was originally dedicated, as a symbol of our community.
While downtown for the parade Friday, take a moment to ponder how different Bloomington would be had the courthouse not been restored. Then thank the visionary people whose tenacity and community spirit helped save it.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on July 7, 2008 11:32 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts