About Montgomery County Courthouse

The Montgomery County Courthouse in Crawfordsville was George Bunting's first in Indiana. Today there are six Bunting courthouse still standing in the state, and his buildings can be found in Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, Tennessee, West Virginia and Kansas.

 

Bunting graduated from Girard College and joined the Confederacy during the Civil War, serving as colonel in the First Mississippi Cavalry. In 1869, he moved north and by 1874 was in Indianapolis with the firm of Bunting and Huebner, and later, by the mid 1880s, with Bunting and Son.

 

Although the Montgomery County Courthouse has the distinction of being designed by a former Confederate office, it was a former Union officer who spoke at the dedication of the cornerstone in 1875. Gen. Lew Wallace, a Civil War hero, author of the best selling book, Ben Hur, and Crawfordsville lawyer, spoke of the life of the court. Wallace wanted it to be remembered that courthouses were public buildings and had been used in pragmatic ways.

 

Sources:
The Magnificent 92 Indiana Courthouses
Text by Jon Dilts
Rose Bud Press - Bloomington, Indiana