Posted March 7, 200817 yr The town that decided to keep its courthouse. Defiance's tallest Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiide 1/2 Cladded The courthouse is one of at least three similar designs by J.C. Johnson. Similar to Defiance County, the Johnson courthouse in Winchester, Indiana lost its mansard roof and tower. (Image stolen from www.RobertPence.com) The Johnson courthouse in Decatur, Indiana fared best, however. (Image stolen from www.RobertPence.com) Back to Defiance (and fittingly, Clinton) 3/5 Cladded
March 7, 200817 yr The rest of the town looks pretty nice. The courthouse, even with its horrible top floor, at least has the rest in good shape and could some day be restored. Looks better than the top of Jefferson County in Steubenville. Plus, the name "Defiance" is great!
March 7, 200817 yr Not bad. "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
March 7, 200817 yr Excellent photos, Nathaniel; I love the last shot. Is it supposed to be metaphoric? ("And the first shall be last.") I like Defiance; it's a nice town. They have a park at the confluence of the Auglaize and Maumee Rivers marking the site of Fort Defiance, and a few miles to the east along the Maumee River is a state park that includes canal-era Independence Dam and a restored Wabash-Erie Canal lock. I'll bet if you were to look up newpapers from the time of the courthouse rededication, you'd see that someone boasted of the tribute to its architectural heritage in the shape of the windows on the new addition. J.C. Johnson was from Fremont. He was a contractor who taught himself architecture, and had a pretty good eye for the details of the architectural style of the times; he certainly held back nothing in that area, and his basic structures were solid and enduring. His engineering skills must have been lacking in the area of roofs and towers, though. Of his three mid-1870s courthouses I know of, none kept the towers he created, and only one still has its mansard roof. His original design placed a tall, slender, elegant tower dead-center atop the building. When the buildings were fairly new, the towers developed problems, shifting and creaking on windy days. Decatur, Indiana (Adams County) was the first to go, replaced by a different tower positioned over the front entrance where there was enough structural strength to support it. That was part of an 1890s general remodeling designed by Brentwood Tolan, architect for the Allen County (IN) courthouse in Fort Wayne. Winchester (Randolph County) exprienced the same structural problems, but it wasn't until 1955 that they addressed them with a major desecration performed by Bluffton (IN) contractor Herman Reiff. The battle over demolition there apparently has been put to rest, and the last I knew, discussions were ongoing as to what to do about restoration. There's not a lot of money around for public works projects nowadays, and Randolph County may be feeling the pinch worse than some others in the area. Add the 1875 Whitley County sheriff's residence and jail to the list of J.C. Johnson's creations. It was replaced quite a few years ago with a new structure, and the only use it sees now is as a Hallowe'en haunted house. I haven't been inside, but I've heard the festivities have fairly well trashed it. It's a shame, as it would make a splendid county historical museum if someone could cough up the million dollars or so that I'd speculate would be needed to restore it.
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