Hamilton County Courthouse Square is a historic

courthouse A courthouse or court house is a building that is home to a local court of law and often the regional county government as well, although this is not the case in some larger cities. The term is common in North America. In most other English-spe ...

and

jail A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correc ...

located at

Noblesville Noblesville is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Indiana, United States, a part of the north Indianapolis suburbs along the White River. The population was 51,969 at the 2010 census making it the state's 14th largest city/town ...

Hamilton County, Indiana Hamilton County is a county in the U.S. state of Indiana. The 2020 United States Census recorded a population of 347,467. The county seat is Noblesville. Hamilton County is part of the Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson, IN Metropolitan Statistical Ar ...

. The jail was built in 1875–1876, and is a

Second Empire Second Empire may refer to: * Second British Empire, used by some historians to describe the British Empire after 1783 * Second Bulgarian Empire (1185–1396) * Second French Empire (1852–1870) ** Second Empire architecture, an architectural styl ...

style brick and

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

building. It consists of the two-story, ell-shaped jailer's residence, with a cellblock attached at the rear. It features a three-story square tower that once had a

mansard roof A mansard or mansard roof (also called a French roof or curb roof) is a four-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterised by two slopes on each of its sides, with the lower slope, punctured by dormer windows, at a steeper angle than the upper. The ...

. The courthouse was built between 1877 and 1879, and is a three-story, Second Empire style, rectangular brick building. It has a

clock tower Clock towers are a specific type of structure which house a turret clock and have one or more clock faces on the upper exterior walls. Many clock towers are freestanding structures but they can also adjoin or be located on top of another buildi ...

atop the mansard roof and limestone

Corinthian order The Corinthian order (Greek: Κορινθιακός ρυθμός, Latin: ''Ordo Corinthius'') is the last developed of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric order ...

pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...

s. ''Note:'' This includes and Accompanying photographs. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1978. The buildings are also included as

contributing buildings In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distric ...

in the

Noblesville Commercial Historic District Noblesville Commercial Historic District is a national historic district located at Noblesville, Hamilton County, Indiana. It encompasses 54 contributing buildings in the central business district of Noblesville. It developed between about 187 ...

, which was NRHP-listed in 1991.

References

Clock towers in Indiana County courthouses in Indiana Courthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Indiana Government buildings completed in 1879 Second Empire architecture in Indiana Buildings and structures in Hamilton County, Indiana National Register of Historic Places in Hamilton County, Indiana Historic district contributing properties in Indiana {{HamiltonCountyIN-NRHP-stub