The courthouse in January after completed renovations. Isaac Green | Collegian
Hillsdale County completed renovations to its historic courthouse Jan. 10 after a two-year project to restore the exterior features and structural integrity of the building.
The original job, which started as roof repairs, snowballed into a larger undertaking when the county learned there were more serious issues with the building.
“There were stone blocks that were no longer attached, that were sitting there just based on gravity, that really could have released and fallen,” County Commissioner Doug Ingles said. “We did experience one of those stone blocks several years ago that had fallen from the bell tower and landed on the roof.”
To figure out the extent of the deterioration, the county hired Renaissance Historic Exteriors, a company based out of Illinois that specializes in restoration and exterior repairs of historic buildings.
“They asked us to do a whole building assessment, which we did, and that’s when we got into all the masonry and what poor condition the overall building was in,” said Brian Lockie, business development specialist for Renaissance Historic Exteriors. “That set up that additional contract to do not only the tower masonry, which was in really bad shape, but the rest of the building as well.”
Lockie said the original plan was to be finished by the summer of 2024.
“The building really just fought us at every turn,” Lockie said. “Every time we’d open up something that we thought was going to be a simple fix, it turned out to be much more complex than we were led to believe, which is not uncommon in our industry. This one just pushed back a little more than usual because it hadn’t had any love for a long time.”
Barring any cataclysmic weather events, Lockie said the goal is that the courthouse will be good for another 75 to 100 years.
“I think we’re going to set up some type of an every-five-year maintenance inspection just to make sure nothing has happened for them, but that’s purely preventative,” Lockie said.
While the project cost $10.8 million, moving forward with the renovations was the fiscally responsible decision, according to Ingles. Studies done by the National Center for State Courts showed that Hillsdale County has more than 40,000 square feet of need in its courthouses, Ingles said, while the current building is only 20,000 square feet in size.
Estimates for an addition to the building came in at around $20 million, and while the county decided against that route, it still had to figure out what to do with the current building.
Ingles said the other option was to demo the courthouse and construct a new building, but that would have cost the county an even greater sum of $30 million.
“While we spent $10.8 million, what we didn’t spend was $30 million,” Ingles said.
With the help of $8.8 million from the federal government, the county only had to borrow $2 million through an interdepartmental loan.
“The project met my personal goal for the $8.8 million in American Rescue Plan funds the county received as I wanted to use that money to fund something that would have a lasting effect on our county as well as something our residents could see for many years into the future,” County Commissioner Brad Benzing said.
In addition to preserving the historic building, the renovations helped unify the look of the exterior, according to Benzing.
“The elevator addition, which was completed in 2008, now has the same barrel tile roof as the rest of the historic courthouse and that ties the two together seamlessly,” Benzing said.
According to Ingles, the courthouse is the gem and showpiece of the Hillsdale community.
“Without this building there,” Ingles said. “It would leave a black hole in our downtown.”
Send tips to the City News team: collegiancitynews@gmail.com