Afterwork: Bordered, resized, sharpened.

County Court House, Greenfield, Indiana

The courthouse has windowed turrets on two corners and a bell tower with a clock. Completed January 1, 1898, the Hancock County Courthouse lies at the center of downtown Greenfield. Made of Indiana limestone, the Courthouse combines elements of Richardsonian Romanesque, Victorian Gothic, and Chateauesque architecture.

Greenfield and Courthouse History:

Early settlers built along the two creeks which flow south through Center Township, which includes Greenfield. The first businesses were small grist mills for grinding corn and wheat for settlers.

U.S. 40, the National Road, was built through Hancock County around 1835. It was heavily traveled by wagon trains going west and livestock going to Cincinnati. In 1853, the first steam railroad was completed by the Indiana Central Railroad at the south edge of Greenfield. The railroad became part of the Pennsylvania Railroad System and later the Penn-Central. These tracks were removed in the 1980s.

During this time, Greenfield's population continued to grow. Greenfield was incorporated as a city in 1876 with a population of 2,023 (click here for a list of Greenfield's past mayors since incorporation). The greatest single period of growth began in 1887 when natural gas was discovered in the area. Greenfield was a boom town for 20 years, with the founding of manufacturing plants and other industries.

In some earlier historical publications, "Hancock County has been described as within the genius belt of Indiana." It was also said that "here oratory flourishes and the poetry is indigenous to the soil." Among the greats of the city were James Whitcomb Riley, the "Hoosier Poet"; two famous artists, Will Vawter and Dick Black, Earl K. Smith, composer of "Down by the Old Mill Stream", and Rev. Charles O'Donnell, later President of Notre Dame.

A statue of James Whitcomb Riley, which stands in front of the Hancock County Courthouse, was erected in 1918. It was purchased with money donated by school children from all over the United States. Each year, during the Riley Festival in October, the city's school children parade to the statue to place flowers around it.


I was born in this town, took my first steps through Riley Park. As I got older I played baseball in that same park, my father coached my baseball team. Yes. I'm a small town girl, some of my best memories were of the Festival for James Whitcomb Riley every year. My grandfather would go out on the two weekends the festival occured and cook a pancake breakfast sponsered by his lodge. My sister and I would get our coats on because the weather was never certain and huddle inside the tent with our father to eat them. Then of course we'd tour the booths later, watch the parade. Ohh but after, that was what tied my stomach up in knots. For after there was a huge art contest. All the schools in the area would submit art, visual and written. It would be posted inside on the walls of the Courthouse, behind all the flowers set around the statue of Riley. Time always seemed to tick so fast then and I would just scream inside for it to be over.

I never won, but I placed once for photography. A harbinger perhaps?



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