Last updated: 5/21/2011
516 4th Street
Covington, IN 47932
719 Liberty Street
Covington, IN 47932
Open 1st Saturday May through October or by arrangement.
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Carol Freese
phone: 765-793-2710
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Nancy Wagner
phone: 765-793-4432
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Fountain County Clerk's Building is a local history museum. Built in 1842 by County Commissioners as a fire-safe depository for county records, it originally sat on the courthouse square and housed the first law office of author, stateman, inventor Lew Wallace. Sold in 1859 and moved 2 blocks to its current location where it was used as a private residence for 140 years. Fountain County Art Council, Inc. was gifted the building by the Booe-Inlow-d'Arlier Memorial Charitable Trust with the understanding it be restored for use as a local history depository opening in 2005.
The “Old Clerk’s Building” was ordered to be built on the Courthouse Lawn (38' long and 25" wide) of brick in March of 1842 to protect county records from fire.
There were two rooms on either side of the central hall way of the “Old Clerk’s Building”. The Fountain County offices for the “Clerk”, “Auditor”, and the “Recorder” occupied most of the building. Two rooms were rented to local attorneys.
The “Old Clerk’s Building” of Fountain County was sold at public auction for $95 in 1859 and was moved, across the street and two blocks North, to its current location becoming a private residence. A larger and new County Courthouse (number three) was built on the County Square.
In 2001 the “Fountain County Art Council”
bought the “Old Clerk’s Building” restoring it and is developing it as a historical interpretive center.
Local history exhibits - monthly feature
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