Indiana County Courthouse Histories

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Putnam County
Named for: General Israel Putnam - French and Indian War
Organized: 1822
County Seat: Greencastle
Number of Courthouses: 3

Number	Years	Type	Detail
1	1830-1850	Coffee Mill	Builder: Amos Robertson was contracted but did not complete the task. July 1829 Arthur McGaughey was paid $699.93 to complete the courthouse
2	1848-1903	Stylized	Plans: Elisha Braman. 50x80. Completed 9/4/1848. $8500. Builder: Elisha Adamson
3	1905-Present	Castle	Arch: John Gaddis, $175,729.68. Builder: Caldwell & Drake 7/29/1903, paid $144,917.13. Cornerstone: 10/29/1903. Completed and Dedicated: 7/4/1905

The county seat may have been located in but unofficially designated as the town of Bedford for a short time period. No one knows where Bedford was located.

There probably was a courthouse of some sort 1826-1830. County records 1822-1828 are unavailable. This loss of records also prevents a full accounting of the 1830 courthouse.

John Gaddis was the designer of three Indiana Courthouses; in Clay (1914), Huntington (1908), and Putnam (1905) Counties. The present Putnam County Courthouse was the first of the Classical Renaissance Courthouses in Indiana.

The Putnam County Courthouse courtyard is adorned with a WWII V-1 rocket (buzz bomb). There are only two V-1 rockets in the United States; the other is at the Smithsonian Institute.

The corners of the 1905 courthouse contain a Korean and Vietnam War Memorial, a World War II Memorial, and a World War I Memorial.