She does Pokemon, I do photography, cute meet in downtown Albion
Apparently they do this periodic special thing in the Pokemon Go world where you can catch these very special, extra-shiny Pokemon, shove them into tiny prisons, then force them to battle each other to the death. Or something like that.
I don't do Pokemon, because I'd rather be writing about tiny beings fighting to the death in tiny prisons, which come to think of it I just came up with a great story idea. But Sunday I walked up to the Noble County Courthouse square to join Emily, who'd already been up there for awhile catchin' 'em all. I could have spent the time with her making fun of Pokemon, but Emily kicks really hard. So instead, I took pictures. (As usual, you can click on these to make them bigger. I think.)
Yeah, okay, I took more photos of the courthouse. Someday I'll do a Noble County Courthouse calender, and you'll all want one.
This is the geographical center of Noble County, give or take some concrete and asphalt. It's also the location of the tiny police booth, which has become something of an icon, and the "liar's bench", which perhaps ironically is right by the police booth.
Volunteers keep downtown Albion flowered and flagged all summer long.
Just as the District of Columbia was originally formed from pieces of two states, Albion was built at the border of two townships, so they took half a square mile of each and made Albion Township--the smallest township in the USA. The streetlight on the left is a reproduction of the original from the 1800s. Lighting it by striking two rocks together is a pain.
I've often mentioned the Black Building, which is green, and the third building there built by the Black family. (The first two were wood, and thus highly flammable.) The art gallery there is the only place where you can buy all my books right off the shelf, which is appropriate considering it's mentioned in two of them.
I really wonder what they were thinking when they planned that courthouse. Something like "Lets build something like those cool scottish castles, but with windows to save on petroleum for the lamps." :)
The windows were definitely made big, since indoor lighting and ventilation were so poor back then. In fact, if you look closely at our courthouse, you can see that some of the windows are actually smaller than original, to save costs now that they have better HVAC systems. As to the rest of the designs, it was still a fairly new state back in those days: The people wanted something big and fancy to give them a sense of grandness that such small, new towns just didn't have.
Over all, its not unuasual for a representative building in the late 19th century. Also here in Germany they had this period of architecture with element of old castles, like several towers and many corners in the walls and so on. We call this "Gründerzeit Stil" - Founders Time style. It has also a destinct style in furniture and even machinery, with a typical way of using ornaments in cast iron to make things.
And this style borrows much from earlier time periods, like the 17 and 18th century. Thats why I said, the court house reminds a bit of old english or scottish castles. Only, they dont usually have a clock in the tower...
But its this kind of place, where Prince William spends his summer vacation. :)
They have a name for our courthouse's kind of architecture, but I don't recall what ...
Ah, here it is:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_County_Courthouse_(Indiana)
Noble County Courthouse (Indiana)
The Noble County Courthouse is a historic courthouse located on Courthouse Sq. in Albion, Noble County, Indiana. It was designed by E.O. Fallis & Co. and was built in 1887.
Richardsonian style... so most likely after someone named Richardson - never heard of that before.
Most surprising is to see that there are 3 Noble County court houses in the US, which makes things confusing again. But the Albion one was the first.
It's not unheard of for us to get calls in dispatch from people who are actually looking for Noble County, Ohio, or Noble County, Oklahoma. And with over two dozen Albions, we get calls for other towns, too.
Really, Oklahoma? They must have taken a seriously wrong turn somewhere... :)
It reminds me of the famous story of the wife of a British soldier in Germany, who wanted to drive to Britain to visit relatives. (For that, you need to cross through France to get to Calais for the Tunnel train or the ferry, or through Belgium to get to Antwerp for a ferry).
She began to wonder why it was taking so long to get there, and why all the road signs were in spanish... :)
:-)
The basic problem is that people either look up a number or ask an operator, and in both cases they don't double check their work before they put the call through. If I hear an address I'm not familiar with I'll often say to the caller, "Let me ask you a strange question: What state are you trying to call?"
You have a minor misspelling in the following sentence:
It should be calendar instead of calender.Haha, that just what we have waited for: a smart ass bot :)
Jeez, what's that, a grammar nazi ... oh. Never mind.
:-)
But it's right, after all. And it could be that the worst part is, nobody noticed.
Well, I didn't notice, but perhaps because its correct in German, at least kind of: we write it "Kalender". There is however the word "kalendarisch" which means, um, calendrical... if there is such thing in english at all. It means "by calendar", "according to calendar",
I don't think we have such a word--but maybe we should.