Indiana County Courthouse Histories

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Clark County
Named for: General George Rogers Clark - Revolutionary War and frontier hero
Organized: 1801
County Seat: Springville, 1801-1802
Jeffersonville, 1802-1810
Charlestown, 1810-1878
Jeffersonville 1878-
Number of Courthouses: 5

Number	Years	Type	Detail
1	1802-1812, Jeffersonville	Frame
2	1813-1850, Charlestown	Brick
3	1850-1878, Charlestown	Stylized
4	1878-1969, Jeffersonville	Castle	Built by Jeffersonville before regaining the County Seat. $30,000 had been collected for this structure. Occupied October 1878
5	1970-Present, Jeffersonville	Modern	Wright, Porteous, & Lowe City/County Building $5.2 million per John Dilts

Springville, which the Indians called Tulleytown (for a trader there), had no Courthouse.

Clark was the second Indiana County, after Knox. It was home to the first Colonial settlement, Clarksville, founded 1784, on land gained by the State of Virginia via Indian treaty and given to the men who fought with George Rogers Clark in the Ohio Valley during the Revolutionary War. Clark's military commission was by the State of Virginia.

The 1802 Courthouse was the first built in Indiana. It was the only one until a second courthouse was built in Lawrenceburg in Dearborn County in 1810. Knox County did not complete its first courthouse until 1813.

The tower of the 1878 courthouse was rebuilt sometime before its demolition. There appear to be very few photographs or postcards of this courthouse.

There is some documented confusion as to whether the county seat move back to Jeffersonville occurred in 1873 or 1878.

The original town plan for Jeffersonville was created by Thomas Jefferson, but the plan was abandoned as the town began to grow.