I came to the idea of photographing Indiana’s old jails and sheriff’s residences far later than I probably should have. Between 2011 and 2017, I set out to visit every historic courthouse in Indiana. Towards the end, I realized just how many of those early county jails are still standing! I doubt I’ll make it out to some of the state’s most far-flung communities again to capture them all, but I did manage to stop in Columbia City and snap several shots of the old Whitley County Jail. It’s a striking structure.
The jail I took pictures of was Whitley County’s third. The first was built in 1840 on what’s now part of the courthouse square. The $490 building lasted until 1855, when a prisoner awaiting trial burned it down. The county’s second jail -a two-story building- was completed the same year at 112 South Chauncey Street, now site of Columbia City’s City Hall1.
The third was designed by J.C. Johnson and built in 1875 at a cost of $34,4862. Johnson -a prominent self-taught architect3– also drew up plans for several courthouses, including those in Adams, Hamilton, and Randolph Counties in Indiana, as well as Defiance County’s in Ohio. Johnson’s Second Empire sheriff’s residence features cues straight from his courthouses, like a mansard roof, dormer windows, detailed cornices, and decorative brackets.
The jail itself -the blocky rear section of the sheriff’s residence- doesn’t boast nearly the same architectural charm as the ornate front portion of the building. As such, I didn’t focus on it. Still, that wing is a crucial part of the story: those plain, chunky walls once held the county’s inmates and miscreants, which makes them just as much a witness to local history as the decorative façade out front.
A modern jail was eventually built at 101 West Market Street on the south edge of Columbia City’s courthouse square. Late last year, a new $34 million jail was built two-and-a-half miles away at 711 Opportunity Drive4. Whitley County’s transition was dramatic: overnight, officials traded one of Indiana’s oldest working jails for one of its most state-of-the-art facilities5.
Still, the even older jail persists as a landmark near downtown Columbia City. It’s said that the fence that once surrounded the jail was moved to Broxon Cemetery, a burial ground of about two-hundred interments in Whitley County’s Jefferson Township6. All but a piece of the fence, which was relocated back to the jail, was sold to a Fort Wayne scrapper in 19617…