Strolling Through Historic Downtown-The Courthouse

This is the first part in what will hopefully be a long ongoing series about downtown Angola, throughout history, the landmark buildings, the history shaping merchants, and amazing citizens that have all, together, helped shape the Downtown into what it is today.

If you are interested in something particular, or have something to share about anything downtown related, feel free to pop me an email, or comment here on the blog itself.

I'd also like to thank, before I start, Kim Maxton Bordner, of A Wild Hare for permission to peruse, and use her amazing collection of postcards.

That said, enjoy!

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When Steuben County was formed out of LaGrange county in the late 1830's, Thomas Gale and Cornelius Gilmore offered to donate land for a courthouse, and to erect the building. This is how Angola became the seat of the county.

The first courthouse in Angola was finished in 1841, in roughly the same place the courthouse is now. It was a simple two story frame building with the first floor divided into four rooms- one each for the Clerk, the Recorder, the Auditor and the Treasurer- while the second floor was reserved for Court and for general public assemblies.

This first courthouse was built with a long porch in the front, decorated with a tall row of colums that eventually had to be taken down so that the growing village could make use of the porch as a much needed extra room.

When the town decided that a new courthouse needed to be build, they got a local carpenter, Freeborn Patterson, to design the building, and they sold the old one at a public auction.

The old building was then moved, to make room for the new one, and stayed for many years on East Maumee, just off the actual square. (In the picture below, it's behind Patterson's.)

So, in 1868, the “new” courthouse was finished, and has been in constant use ever since,and in 1975, it was added the National Register of Historical Places.

While many things have changed both inside and out (The cars out front are a big difference from the buggies of old, and I don't imagine that Free Patterson designed the courthouse entrance with the metal detector in mind.), it's still essentially the same building that's been serving Steuben County, and remained one of the most lovely parts of the Downtown for 142 years.