Shelby County Courthouse - 1881

A temporary courthouse and jail were constructed side-by side on Ohio Avenue facing the public square. After Shelby County was formed, the commissioners met temporarily in local citizen’s homes before moving into the new two-story courthouse on March 4, 1822. Sidney’s first school classes were held there beginning in 1823.

When the county’s second courthouse was constructed, the original courthouse was sold and removed to West Avenue, between Court and Poplar streets, where it later served as a home for the Plow Works Co. In those days, resources were too limited to simply destroy buildings that had already been built. It was quite common for someone to buy an intact structure, relocate it and use it for another purpose.

The second courthouse was 44’ x 44’, two stories high, made of brick and completed in May, 1833. Painted white with green blinds, it stood in the center of the square, facing south. Shelby County’s first fair was held on October 8, 1840, on the court square.

At one time, the whole square was enclosed with a heavy poplar rail fence which was then supplanted by a fifteen foot high hedge that not only encased the fence, but obscured the view of the building. Eventually, the hedge was cut down and the fence destroyed. The commissioners then replaced it with a panel fence which had four patent gates resembling a turnstile. There were public protests to the building of these fences because the citizens wanted to ensure that the square was for the ‘public’ and not ‘fenced in’ for exclusive use by the commissioners.

On Thanksgiving Day in 1870, a flock of wild turkeys settled down in and around the court house square. E.S. Burnett, proprietor of the Burnett House (as the Wagner House was then called), shot one perched on the roof of the building. By 1872, the second courthouse was described as "a plain unpretending brick structure, painted a dirty white. It is, indeed, the court house of 1832, and stands there alone, looking rather like a mournful ghost of the past decades than what it is. The day is not far distant, however, we hope, when it will give place to a structure more in keeping with the city and country of to-day." (The photo below is of second courthouse)