Last Saturday (February 5) I chose to avoid the weekend frenzy on I-69 and made the drive from Indianapolis to Fort Wayne via US 37 through Noblesville. I stopped there to take some photos. Indianapolis was under an air quality alert most of the week, and the alert is to remain in effect until some rain comes to break the inversion. Smog is no respecter of county lines, and there was a lot of haze in the air at Noblesville, too, although my polarizing filter compensated for most of it in the pictures. The polarizing filter couldn't help my lungs though, and after an hour or so of walking around I was starting to feel the effects.

 

Noblesville, Indiana (population 28,590), county seat of Hamilton County, is located just north of Indianapolis. The downtown looks like it has been the beneficiary of considerable investment since I was last there. It's very clean and attractive.

 

The Hamilton County Courthouse was designed in the Second Empire style with a mansard roof and a square center tower by Edwin May, who later designed the Indiana State House. It was built 1877 – 1879 at a cost of $107,143 and was provided with steam heat, an innovation at that time. Eight pieces of ornamental statuary were removed from the plan to pay for the heating system; I'd guess they probably would have adorned the tops of the chimney-like structures between the dormers on the front and rear of the building.

 

The courthouse was the site of a trial in 1925 of Ku Klux Klan Knights of the Invisible Empire Grand Dragon D.C. Stephenson, a prominent political figure who kidnapped and raped a State House secretary. He was convicted and received the maximum prison sentence. When his political allies failed to come to his aid, he started naming names. His expose' brought about the indictment of many Indiana politicians, including governor Ed Jackson.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The courthouse sits in the center of a traditional town square

 

 

 

Odd Fellows Building

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Masonic Temple

 

 

 

Former church in its new life as a nicely-done office building

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Probably as gritty as it gets in Noblesville

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gorgeous.

cool! the courthouse is especially nice.

the whole city sorta looks like Bryan in nw ohio

Fantastic courthouse - I really like the close-up (with the traffic light in it).  And lots of nice brick structures.  Sturdyville, Indiana!

 

Not so sure on the offices in the church...nice that it's been adapted for a new use, but the white lettering on the windows just looks bad.

Another "nice courthouse" post here.

 

And a good-looking town overall, too.

Nice job Rob.

 

Noblesville seems like a really nice town.  I checked it out one time when I was in Indy and was pretty surprised.  The courthouse is very nice.  Although, Noblesville really seems to be turning into sprawl-central.  All the development in Carmel, Westfield, and Fishers really seems to be spilling over into Noblesville and the surrounding area.  At least the downtown seems pretty vibrant.

Very nice.

Great photos! Here's a few more from this month:

 

http://www.pbase.com/archetype/noblesville

enjoyable sir. As I've said before small town indiana has unbelievable resemblances to small town ohio.

 

If i ever really get bored one day, I feel like I could pick each one of your photos and find a similary architecturally, composed photo from somehwere else in ohio.

 

but honestly, i've got better things to do.

 

Also of note, it seems more and more IOOF "temples"(?) were constructed with a very similar style in mind. Kind of like those guys just mailed the blueprints on the next bunch.

I don't remember ever going through Noblesville, but it bears a STRIKING resemblance to my alma mater town of Franklin, IN (south of Indy). Does it feel like there's a total Main Street renaissance going on in small towns in the last decade or so? Between that movement and the emergence of the "dense" lifestyle centers, it seems like people are really missing the intimacy and community of city neighborhoods.

Indiana has some nice small towns.

... Does it feel like there's a total Main Street renaissance going on in small towns in the last decade or so? Between that movement and the emergence of the "dense" lifestyle centers, it seems like people are really missing the intimacy and community of city neighborhoods.

 

There does seem to be a renewed interest in bringing back downtown vitality, and some of the small towns have been quicker to show progress than some of the larger cities. Less inertia to overcome, I suppose.

 

In my hometown of Bluffton, Indiana, about a half dozen owners of downtown business have rehabbed the living spaces on the upper floors in their late-nineteenth-century buildings and made them their homes. For years those places had been low-rent, low-quality apartments, storage, or vacant.

 

A lot of the retail revival I've seen in the small towns, especially the ones that have become refuges for workers in nearby larger cities, is made up of boutiques, coffee shops, antique shops, Hallmark stores and ice cream parlors, and I think their world may be threatened by increasing commuting inconvenience and cost. I don't dislike any of those things, but I'll be more encouraged when I see hardware stores, drug stores, groceries, clothing stores selling professional and blue-collar work attire, and restaurants where you can get a good tenderloin or cheeseburger at the counter, or fried chicken or a good steak for dinner.

 

I consider myself fortunate that I can still go to a barber in Bluffton who gives a good haircut, doesn't sell cosmetics and doesn't display posters of improbably handsome young models with improbably perfect skin and hair. He and his wife have done a very high-quality rehab of the long-vacant apartment above the shop, and made it their home. It's light and spacious with 12-foot ceilings, and absolutely wonderful.

 

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I consider myself fortunate that I can still go to a barber in Bluffton who gives a good haircut, doesn't sell cosmetics and doesn't display posters of improbably handsome young models with improbably perfect skin and hair.

 

I just started going to barbers like this...I'll never go back to the strip malls. Oxford has a shop I can walk to, and Hamilton has several little hole-in-the wall places scattered in the neighborhoods. I'm surprised at how cheap they are too, its not hard to tip well.