One hundred years ago in Indianapolis, Hoosiers celebrated an event of enormous state and city pride. So special a day it was that businesses declared a holiday to allow their employees to participate. Many downtown buildings were decked with flags and bunting, and a large parade wound its way through downtown streets. Units of the United States military, the State militia, civic organizations, fraternal societies, marching bands, mail carriers, boys brigades, and veterans, among others, marched from the State House, past the recently-completed Soldiers and Sailors Monument, up Meridian and down Pennsylvania Streets. The parade ended at a cluttered construction site where leaders of the federal, state, and city governments and community leaders were gathered on a platform under a swinging derrick waiting to begin the solemn business of the day. At 2:30 p.m. on March 25, 1903, the cornerstone of the new United States Court House and Post Office was laid.

    Indiana’s Congressman Jesse Overstreet remarked on that occasion:

It is fitting that in architecture, convenience, and equipment this edifice should meet the demands of the future as well as the needs of the present. Erected upon a magnificent site, unexcelled in the country, the beauty of the structure will be equal to its utility, and both will be as lasting as time. The characteristics of beauty and utility can be appropriately applied to our city within which this building will stand. It is a city of an industrious, honest and energetic people. A city of homes, and churches, and schools, within which truth, thrift and patriotism are taught. We are highly honored and complimented by this act of the Government and shall take an honest pride in our share of the business which may be here transacted. Our people will be benefited by the building and its business, and the Government will not suffer by the confidence imposed.

     The United States Court House and Post Office has undergone many changes over the last century, from its primary role as the main Post Office and headquarters of all federal offices for the state, including the sole federal judge serving the entire state, to its role today as primarily a Court House where now five district court judges, who are joined by four Magistrate Judges and four Bankruptcy Judges and a large staff, dispatch the judicial business of the national government in the southern half of the state. Through it all, as Congressman Overstreet predicted, the building has lasted and continues to be a thing of beauty and utility, an ornament to the city of Indianapolis and the state of Indiana.

     Now, one hundred years later, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, the Court’s Historical Society, and the General Services Administration, the building manager, invite the community to join in a centennial celebration of the building. While our civic ancestors celebrated the establishment of the Court House on that one day in 1903, we have planned a variety of events throughout 2003 to mark this milestone and to honor the role and prominence of this edifice during the last century. There is a lot of history to cover. We invite you to affirm with us Congressman Overstreet’s sentiments which are as true today as they were in 1903: "the United States Court House endures as an honor and a compliment to the city and the state and we take an honest pride in our share of the business which is transacted here."

     On the following pages, you will find brief histories of the Court House and the Judiciary which has occupied it, as well as a description of the various Centennial events that are planned. We welcome you and look forward to your participation in these observances.

For the Court,

The Honorable Sarah Evans Barker
Judge, United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana