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Our shop is closed on Wednesdays and Lauri and I were relaxing outside in lawn chairs sipping ice waters when I saw some sick color smoke come over the roofs of the buildings on the next block. We jumped in the truck and headed for the source. I had a bad feeling it was the 1854 courthouse. The courthouse was in the finishing stages of an exterior renovation. The contractor just painted the domes gold yesterday. This weekend is Madison's Old Court Days and in two weeks, the town kicks off celebrations for its bicentennial. We just watched her burn as the firemen arrived and fought the blaze for over two hours. I heard a fireman say they put over a million gallons of water an hour on it before they got it under control, but it is a total loss. Ironically, I have been actively researching the titles on our other house here and had it back to 1857, but needed to dig further in the old hand drawn plats. I told Lauri this morning that we needed to go to the courthouse today to finish the research but got busy with other things and didn't. Dang! We both feel very sad for this tremendous loss to our historic town. We took the first two photos right after the fire started to show. The fire department hadn't arrived yet. It was horrifying to watch the clock faces practically pop off the dome, and to see the cupola and weather vane crash down.

John M

John, That is a real tragedy. Any chance that it could be restored. Probably too early to tell but I'm guessing it will be replaced by a block shaped building that looks like it's made of legos. Sorry to read such news. Bruce

Bruce,
The entire 130+ blocks of downtown Madison is on the National Register of Historic Places and is also a National Historic Landmark District, so the courthouse will have to be rebuilt/restored, rather than replaced with an inappropriate structure. I learned last night that just the day before, the state of Indiana passed legislation to set up a committee to deal with "courthouses in peril", for which I believe Madison's courthouse has suddenly become the poster child. The timing of the fire was fortunate in that respect. The loss of the beautiful old hand-drawn plat books and early county records (although they have been electronically preserved) is most disheartening to me. I also think about the fate of the 155-year old clock mechanism in the tower, which acted like a chimney flue for the fire as it burned in the attic. I'm sure that what was not destroyed by the fire was destroyed by the water -- a million gallons an hour for over four hours! A river of water ran out the courthouse doors and down the steps to the street where it flowed downhill back into the Ohio, as the fireman deluged the burning structure from aerial snorkles.

Thanks for your kind wishes and concern.

Here are a couple of photos of the courthouse in better days -- one from an old postcard and the other a more recent photo. She was really looking good the day of the fire -- complete exterior renovation with both the larger and smaller domes painted bright gold.

John M

Hello John, I feel very bad for you and your town. I love historic buildings, and to see something historic and irreplaceable go like this is heart wrenching. I'm hopeful that maybe the clock mechanism is restorable. I imagine that it was pretty heavy duty and perhaps enough of it survived to make repairs feasible.

Carl L.

It is a shame...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQRXvKP4Oc4[/youtube]

Just a couple more taken this morning:
Thanks for the kind words and thoughts, folks!

John M

that's really sad. I used to be the chairman of my town's historic preservation commission, and I can't imagine what a loss like that (we have a similar, but much larger, expanded courthouse) would have been to our downtown, which is struggling as it is. luckily, the fire seems only to have really affected the cupola. unfortunately, and ironically enough, often it's the extinguishing of such fires that causes more damage than the fires themselves - the water damage to the interior must be heinous. please post more photos when they complete the restoration/repairs.

The town hall and opera house back "home" in Petrolia, Ontario burned in a similar situation: major renovations just completed and down it went.

http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMG8 ... toria_Hall

It was totally disheartening but the town rallied round again and restored a majorly damaged structure. Hopefully that magnificent building of yours will be preserved.

Jim

The fire burned off the entire roof and trusses as well as down into the rooms on the third floor. The rest of the damage was smoke and water. The actual fighting of the fire went on for over six hours with an estimated million plus gallons of water an hour being poued into it. I am told the basement is full and all the records there were totally submerged. The old plat books on the main floor were removed by firefighters from neighboring Switzerland County while the building was ablaze in 'bucket brigade' fashion. There is a semi-trailer with freezer capabilities there now and crews are bringing plastic boxes out loaded with paper and placing them in the trailer to go to the paper conservator.

The courthouse was insured for a replacement value of $25 million. Word on the street is that the contractors doing the exterior renovations were soldering the last of the copper gutters and apparently set a smoldering fire in the eaves that ignited an hour and a half after they left for the day. Ironically, that would have completed the renovation project!

John M

This is such a shame..to see such an historic building so badly damaged. I guess the only (small) consolation is that much of the structure still survives. I just hope that those paper conservators can work their magic on those historic records.

RJ