Wabash County - Wabash, IN - Courthouses on Waymarking.com

For starters find your way to the cornerstone on the north east side of the courthouse and see what you find this building to be according what you observe. Try to figure out how a public courthouse finds its cornerstone to be that of a Masonic loge! It reads "Hanna Lodge, F & A.M. #61."

That mystery aside, look up to the clock near the top of the building. That is not the original clock, the original was a 2000 lb. Seth Thomas clock installed by the builder himself! It was put into service April 23, 1879, even before the building was officially dedicated that 4th of July. Funny thing is though it nearly killed the Sheriff. To make it run it had weights just as old grandfather clocks do, kind of an alternative to winding it up. Each weight weighed 1500 pounds. Well in 1938 it seems that one of them got loose and crashed through the floor all the way to the Sheriff's office! That was all it took, the clock was replaced with an electric one, one with no 1500 pound surprises.

But above and beyond the story of the clock lies what brought this building into the record books to make it a first in the United States. Look up to the very top and you will see what looks like a cross with four round shaped objects on the tips of the cross. Those are lights. Those are the lights that lit up the town in 1880.

Date line March 31, 1880 the story unfurls from the local newspaper "The Wabash Plain Dealer": "At 8 o'clock, the ringing of the court house bell announced that the exhibition of this new light was about to commence. The crowd had gathered, when suddenly from the towering dome of the court house there burst forth a flood of light the like of which had never been seen in Wabash. The people stood almost breathless, overwhelmed with awe, as if in the presence of the supernatural. This strange, weird light seemed more powerful to the people than the sun itself. It drove the darkness back and out of the entire city of Wabash so that now the people could see to read on nearly all of the streets of the city of Wabash by night." Wabash became the first electrically lighted city in the United States. Inside the courthouse you will find two of the original light fixtures that formerly sat atop the courthouse where the lights you see today presently sit. Come by at night, look up, and you will see those lights shining into the darkness just as they did back in 1870.

As for the history of just the courthouse itself..

Its predecessor sat on this site until April 14th 1870. It wasn't much of a building, actually it was described as old barracks with a sign reading "Courthouse" out front. Not the most prideful point for the county but still it was serving its purpose. That was until that fateful day, April 14th, the day it caught on fire and burned. The demise of the old barracks brought about the need for a new Courthouse. September 1877 contracts were let for a new court house. L & J. Gable, Eaton, OH was given the $72,900 contract. Hezekiah Caldwell of Wabash made the 1,250,000 bricks used in the building. Stone came from Berea, OH. The cornerstone was laid May 8, 1878. In addition to the cost of the building and walnut furniture, some $2,166 was added for an iron fence, which ran along the east, north and west sides of the public square. Later the fence was used to separate City Park from the Woman's Club House, and still later, it was purchased by the Jewish Cemetery organization. That same iron fence presently surrounds the Jewish Cemetery on Factory Street in Wabash.

There is now an annex to the west of the building as well. This is attached to the old Civil War Memorial.

Year Built: 1879 Current Use of Building: Courthouse and records Level of Courts: County Architect: B. V. Enos & Son Dates this building was used to house judicial proceedings: 1879 - present Physical Address: 1 West Hill Street Wabash, IN 46992 Hours: 9-5 M-F Related Website: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   12/29/2013 TheCatHerder visited it 07/24/2011 Team gEco Friendly visited it 07/13/2011 DnRseekers visited it

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