c. 1897

Allen County Courthouse Architectural Drawings

A Stone Marvel: The Allen County Courthouse

Construction began on the current Allen County Courthouse in 1897 and was completed five years later in 1902. Designed by Brentwood Skinner Tolan, it was the fourth and final courthouse built for the county and is still in use today over 100 years later. With an astounding price tag of $817,000 (the equivalent of $22,884,936 today), the Allen County Courthouse is a truly magnificent example of art and Beaux-Arts style architecture. It is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a National Historic Landmark.

The original courthouse plans of ink on linen were given to the Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society shortly after Tolan's death in 1923 by his brother Barry. The collection contains 71 architectural drawings as well as other detail drawings and the original wooden box in which the architect kept the courthouse drawings. Another copy of the drawings resides in the Louvre as an example of turn-of-the-century American architecture.