Indiana County Courthouse Histories
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Perry County
Named for: Commodore Oliver H. Perry - War of 1812
Organized: 1814
County Seat: Troy, 1814-1818
Rome, 1818-1859
Cannelton, 1859-1994
Tell City, 1994-
Number of Courthouses: 6
| Number | Years | Type | Detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1817-1818, Troy | Log | Occupied July 1917 |
| 2 | 1822-1859, Rome | Coffee Mill | Detail records lost. Still standing 2010 and used as a community center. |
| 3 | 1859-1897, Cannelton | Brick | Built in 1855 as a school and remodeled as a courthouse. $435 |
| 4 | 1897-1994, | Castle | John Bacon Hutchings Italian Renaissance. $30,000. Paid for by the city of Cannelton. Cornerstone 9/10/1896. Accepted June 1897 |
| 5 | 1994-Present, Tell City | Modern | Andrew Churchill. Modern Judicial Center, $2.6M |
Additional Courthouse: A 6th courthouse structure costing $24,000 was built in Tell City in 1896-1997 to woo the County Seat. Tell City failed when 350 Cannelton residents moved the contents from the 1859 courthouse to the 1897 courthouse after hours. A restraining order to prevent this move arrived the next day. Tell City has used the structure as a city building ever since. Both 1890's Courthouses were built at City expense, the Cannelton Courthouse was transferred to the County for the sum of $1.00.
Rome when selected as the County Seat was named Washington (1817). The name was changed to Franklin when it became the County Seat (1818) and then a short time later Rome (1819) probably due to the influence of William Henry Harrison.
Many of the early county records were lost in the 1820's, including records of the first two courthouses.
The move of the County seat in 1994 is the first County seat move in Indiana since 1896 (Crawford County).
The 1897 Italian Renaissance Cannelton Courthouse has been converted to a museum, but a Courthouse Annex remains in Cannelton.
The 1859 Cannelton Courthouse was converted to a city hall and library and was used for such until it was razed in 1927.