Our County History
by County Historian Marion W. Coplen

The Warsaw city council's recent action looking forward to the building of a new city hall brings to mind the fact that in 1920 the city nearly sold its present site with the idea of purchasing another location for a new municipal building.

At that time, the old Baptist church building, which had been purchased by the city in 1914 for a lettle less than five thousand dollars, stood on the corn lot. The city council set Monday evening, Feb. 23, 1920, as the time for prospective buyers to submit bids for both the city hall and the church building.

W. H. Cook's bid of $12,500 was high, but the council would accept no bid under fourteen thousand. According to our information the city later agreed to accept Cook's offer, but he refused to pay because of the delay.

A history of the present city hall site should be prepared for use at the time of the dedication of the new building. Incidentally, few people probably know that the first two county courthouses were built on the site of the present city hall.

Warsaw Times-Union Sat. July 12, 1952