La Porte County's Second Court House, c. 1848.
By 1847, La Porte County had outgrown its original 1834 brick court house, and a contract was awarded to Luther Mann, Jr., to build a new, larger building on the same site. It was built in the Greek Revival style popular at the time, and was designed by Chicago architect John Van Osdel. Van Osdel had founded the first architectural firm in Chicago in 1844, being brought from New York by Chicago's first mayor in 1836, to design his home. He was also the architect of the court house in South Bend that until recent years served as the home of the Northern Indiana Historical Society, and that building still stands in South Bend. Today, one can see a reminder of La Porte's Second Court House pictured here by driving by the future home of the La Porte County Historical Society in the former Door Prairie Auto Museum building on Indiana Avenue, coming in the south side of La Porte. Dr. Peter Kesling, the museum's builder, had the clock tower replicated exactly, from this photograph, to surmount his auto museum building.