Crown Point, Indiana
August 17, 2011
Return to Urbanindiana.com Home Page
All Photographs Copyright © 2011 by Robert E Pence
Lake County is the northwesternmost Indiana county. It was formed in 1837 and has an area of approximately 626 square miles. The 2000 censusput the population at 484,564. The county seat, Crown Point, had a population of 27,317 at the 2010 census. The Lake County Courthouse was designed by Chicago architect
John C. Cochrane and built by Thomas and Hugh Colwell using locally-made bricks, and incorporates a combination of Romanesque and Georgian
styles. The central portion was built at a cost of $52,000 and dedicated in 1880. The two wings with their towers cost $160,000 were dedicated in 1909.
The building was threatened with demolition to create a parking lot in the early 1970s after county administrative functions moved to a new building,
and was saved through the determined efforts of citizens. It was registered as a national historic landmark in 1973.
The Lake Court House Foundation, Inc., manages and maintains the building.
Elegant marble wainscotting and floors.
The courthouse basement houses specialty retail shops and dining establishments.
Around the town square and the central business district
Masonic Temple
The public library was expanded with an addition at the rear, facing Court Street. The original building still serves the public as the Carnegie Center.
The Old Sheriff's House, built in 1882, now houses the Lake County Historical Museum, and thelarge jail in back, built in 1926, is best known as the jail from which John Dillinger escaped in 1934
using a fake gun carved from wood, not from soap as the popular legend says.
The 1847 Wellington A. Clark homestead, the oldest house in Crown Point.
