« Ind. Gov't. - More on: "State Web site breached: 5,600 notified hacker saw their credit-card numbers" | Main | Ind. Courts: More on "Montgomery County judges issue mandate for staff raises" [Updated] »

Saturday, February 10, 2007

Ind. Courts - Cass County looking for interior photos of Courthouse [Corrected]

"County officials are seeking old photos of the interior of the building for restoration efforts" is the caption to an exterior Courthouse photo in this story in the South Bend Tribune by Barbara Dempsey. Some quotes:

Exterior photos of the building are abundant but those of the interior are another matter and [Cass County Administrator Terry Proctor] has no idea if any can be found.

"We have none," he said this week, after meeting with architects doing a feasibility study on the facility's possible reuse.

"Its history is important to all of us and anytime we bump into old photographs, it is helpful," he said.

So he is asking anyone who might have such vintage photographs to step forward.

It might be a photo of someone's ancestors after their wedding. Maybe the photo was taken in the clerk's office. Maybe it was taken in a hall.

Other photos might be of a group of men meeting in the judge's chambers, or county employees at their desks. Such photos often can reveal the décor of office furnishings in the background.

"We don't know what the decorations were or what the furniture was," Proctor said.

"It would be nice to find something to see what the tables and chairs looked like," he said.

Proctor said county government does have a couple of old tables from the building but he doesn't know if they were judge's benches or prosecutors' tables, and he'd like to see them in an old picture.

It's also possible, he said, that copies could be made and the photographs framed for wall art in the building.

My thought. If that fails, photos from other Indiana courthouses from the same period might be helpful.

In a related story, WTHD reports that the LaGrange County’s Circuit Courtroom has been restored to much of its original condition, including the painted ceiling murals. Chief Justice Shepard was be the featured speaker at the rededication, set for Feb. 23rd.

[Correction 2/12/07] A reader has sent in this necessary correction:

Just thought you’d want to know: the article to which this post refers must be talking about Cass County, Michigan. Cass County, Indiana demolished the old courthouse in the 1970s and has a modern, office building thing. http://www.cqc.com/~ccfsupc/index.html

Posted by Marcia Oddi on February 10, 2007 10:44 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts