BobHunt
28th May 2007, 09:00 PM (21:00)
fom yesteryear, she still resides downtown Crown Point, Indiana. At various times she has had many evil criminals residing within her brick walls and iron barred rooms. She is the old courthouse in the middle of town. On her east steps many a young couple in love have said their "I dos." Those included the former President Ronald Reagan when he married his first wife. There was another famed actor and there is a cafe downstairs named after him, who serves the best crisscross fries.....Valentinos! Yes, Rudy Valentino, who paraded his wife around the grounds after he sealed his marriage on the east steps.
Going downstairs, in the old cell blocks, you can almost feel the slinky sneaky furtive looks from the old criminals who were there, including a man by the name of John Dillinger, who molded a gun out of a bar of black soap and fooled a guard and escaped. He was later gunned down outside the Biograph Theater in Chicago.
Now, however, there has been a marvelous transformation. The cells contain several shops, one a clock store, clocks that play peaceful tones each hour to calm your spirit. It is a place to explore because upstairs holds the old courtroom where Dillinger was to be tried as well as other gangsters. Those who were to attend the trial would walk into the courtroom and remove their hats and place them on a shelf underneath their chair. There is a replica, full size of a canoe that LaSalle used on his expedition. Several more eye catchers are here, including two murals of battles of the Civil War.
Down the street are some old homes, one belonging to the first school teacher named Grimmer, who rode his horse to the schoolhouse he taught in. Oh, if walls could talk, if steel bars could tell stories, if bricks could tell love stories and the scenes they saw!! This is history, real history that shaped our cities and towns of great America. It is the story of men and women who came together for a common cause, interest, or concern. They stood together and left us some very interesting paths to explore!
For those of you who thought Indiana was all corn fields....you have something to learn yet!
Going downstairs, in the old cell blocks, you can almost feel the slinky sneaky furtive looks from the old criminals who were there, including a man by the name of John Dillinger, who molded a gun out of a bar of black soap and fooled a guard and escaped. He was later gunned down outside the Biograph Theater in Chicago.
Now, however, there has been a marvelous transformation. The cells contain several shops, one a clock store, clocks that play peaceful tones each hour to calm your spirit. It is a place to explore because upstairs holds the old courtroom where Dillinger was to be tried as well as other gangsters. Those who were to attend the trial would walk into the courtroom and remove their hats and place them on a shelf underneath their chair. There is a replica, full size of a canoe that LaSalle used on his expedition. Several more eye catchers are here, including two murals of battles of the Civil War.
Down the street are some old homes, one belonging to the first school teacher named Grimmer, who rode his horse to the schoolhouse he taught in. Oh, if walls could talk, if steel bars could tell stories, if bricks could tell love stories and the scenes they saw!! This is history, real history that shaped our cities and towns of great America. It is the story of men and women who came together for a common cause, interest, or concern. They stood together and left us some very interesting paths to explore!
For those of you who thought Indiana was all corn fields....you have something to learn yet!