Martinsville a Pictorial History

Landmarks

     Morgan County Courthouse was designed by Isaac Hodgson and built between 1857-1859 by Perry Magnus Blankenship, the Italiante Morgan County Courthouse anchors Martinsville's comercial district. Made of locally produced red brick, sandstone quarried from the banks of Indian Creek, and tulip poplar from Baker Township, the dignified building cost $30,000 when it was contructed.

     The Martinsville post office retains its original WPA mural, "Arrival of the Mail" depicting sorrowful and gleeful recipients of news, painted in 1937 by artist Alan Tompkins, an native of New York living in Indianapolis and associated with the John Herron School of Art. The nationally significant mural was restored by Martinsville artist Antonius Raemakers, a European-trained muralist, in 1974.

     Bankruptcy was not uncommon during the nineteenth-century, when people sacrificed every penny they had for a piece of land to farm or to put themselves up in business. In 1870, the Morgan County poor farm with its 50-imate "Asylum" was completed at ta cost of $38,682,08 providing the down and out an honest home.

     The original three-story North School, also known as the Second Ward School, was constructed in 1868. The building, with two rooms on the first and second floors and a large assembly room on the third, housed elementary classes as well as the first public high school.

Excerpts of, “ Martinsville A Pictorial History,” republished by permission of
G. Bradley Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

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	Morgan County Courthouse was designed by Isaac Hodgson and built between 1857-1859 by Perry Magnus Blankenship, the Italiante Morgan County Courthouse anchors Martinsville's comercial district. Made of locally produced red brick, sandstone quarried from the banks of Indian Creek, and tulip poplar from Baker Township, the dignified building cost $30,000 when it was contructed.
The Martinsville post office retains its original WPA mural, "Arrival of the Mail" depicting sorrowful and gleeful recipients of news, painted in 1937 by artist Alan Tompkins, an native of New York living in Indianapolis and associated with the John Herron School of Art. The nationally significant mural was restored by Martinsville artist Antonius Raemakers, a European-trained muralist, in 1974.
	Bankruptcy was not uncommon during the nineteenth-century, when people sacrificed every penny they had for a piece of land to farm or to put themselves up in business. In 1870, the Morgan County poor farm with its 50-imate "Asylum" was completed at ta cost of $38,682,08 providing the down and out an honest home.
The original three-story North School, also known as the Second Ward School, was constructed in 1868. The building, with two rooms on the first and second floors and a large assembly room on the third, housed elementary classes as well as the first public high school.