Tippecanoe County Courthouse
Encyclopedia
The Tippecanoe County Courthouse is located on the public square in the city of Lafayette
in Tippecanoe County, Indiana
. The public square is located on 4th Street between Main and Columbia Streets.
and is two-and-a-half stories tall on a raised basement. Architecturally, it is a pastiche of styles including Second Empire, Beaux Arts, Baroque, Rococo, Georgian and Neo-Classical. Paul Goeldner in his study of Midwestern courthouses called the building the "epitome of county capitals".
When Samuel Clemens visited Lafayette he was asked his opinion about the Tippecanoe County Courthouse; his comment was that this courthouse "must have struck the taxpayers a mighty blow". The comment was accurate as this was the most expensive courthouse built in the state until the Allen County Courthouse (Fort Wayne, Indiana) was built some twenty years later. The court house has one hundred columns, nine statues, an elongated dome with four clock faces and a 3000 pounds (1,360.8 kg) bell tuned to C-sharp. A 14-foot statue depicting liberty tops the courthouse dome at a height of 212 feet.
A white male in his mid-40s was wanted for questioning because he was spotted near the scene around the time the truck crashed into the courthouse. Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
found evidence at the scene and sent it for processing but no arrest was ever made for the attempted bombing of the county courthouse. In 2008, a $50,000 reward was offered for information leading to an arrest.
Lafayette, Indiana
Lafayette is a city in and the county seat of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, United States, northwest of Indianapolis. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 67,140. West Lafayette, on the other side of the Wabash River, is home to Purdue University, which has a large impact on...
in Tippecanoe County, Indiana
Tippecanoe County, Indiana
Tippecanoe County is a county located in the northwest quadrant of the U.S. state of Indiana. It was created in 1826 from Wabash County. It is part of the Lafayette, Indiana, Metropolitan Statistical Area....
. The public square is located on 4th Street between Main and Columbia Streets.
History
When the county was first organized in 1826, rooms were rented in which to conduct county business, until 1829 when the first courthouse was built; it was a two-story brick building. It was replaced by a larger brick building in 1845 at a cost of about $3,000; there was a fire in this building in the 1840s, but it was extinguished before it could do any damage. The third and current courthouse was built on the site from 1881 to 1884 at a cost of about $500,000. It is built of Indiana limestoneIndiana Limestone
Indiana Limestone, also known as Bedford Limestone is a common regional term for Salem limestone, a geological formation primarily quarried in south central Indiana between Bloomington and Bedford....
and is two-and-a-half stories tall on a raised basement. Architecturally, it is a pastiche of styles including Second Empire, Beaux Arts, Baroque, Rococo, Georgian and Neo-Classical. Paul Goeldner in his study of Midwestern courthouses called the building the "epitome of county capitals".
When Samuel Clemens visited Lafayette he was asked his opinion about the Tippecanoe County Courthouse; his comment was that this courthouse "must have struck the taxpayers a mighty blow". The comment was accurate as this was the most expensive courthouse built in the state until the Allen County Courthouse (Fort Wayne, Indiana) was built some twenty years later. The court house has one hundred columns, nine statues, an elongated dome with four clock faces and a 3000 pounds (1,360.8 kg) bell tuned to C-sharp. A 14-foot statue depicting liberty tops the courthouse dome at a height of 212 feet.
Attempted Bombing
On August 2, 1998, perpetrator(s) crashed a pickup truck full of gasoline and explosives through the eastern entrance of the Tippecanoe County Courthouse. Local firefighters were able to put out the blazing truck—fortunately before any of the flammable materials in the truck were able to catch fire. On August 11, local county authorities placed concrete barriers around the courthouse to help prevent a similar attack in the future.A white male in his mid-40s was wanted for questioning because he was spotted near the scene around the time the truck crashed into the courthouse. Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is a federal law enforcement organization within the United States Department of Justice...
found evidence at the scene and sent it for processing but no arrest was ever made for the attempted bombing of the county courthouse. In 2008, a $50,000 reward was offered for information leading to an arrest.