Courthouse docent is an enthusiastic history buff

Though Mary Seberger loves to sing and is a member of three vocal ensembles, she said the highlights of every month are the tours she conducts as a volunteer docent at the Allen County Courthouse.

Most of her tours involve third and fourth grade elementary students.

“I really get excited when I see the expressions on their faces when I tell them the shoe size of Lady Liberty on the top of the building is 28. Or when they all strain to locate the mermaid I’ve pointed out in one of the relief works on the wall of the Allen County Superior Court,” she said.

When a class, their teachers and parent chaperons enter the rotunda, she asks them to lie on the floor and look up more than 110 feet to the spectacular courthouse dome.

“It gives them a good idea of the architecture and the grandeur of the building. Then I point out the white marble walls and the scagliola (faux marble) columns and tell them that they look just like marble, but are made of a mixture of gypsum and plaster and come in 28 colors and 24 patterns,” Seberger said.

The molding around the ceiling, she explained, has what look like hundreds of silver eggs and someone always asks what they are.

“My standard response is that they’re just decoration and that there are 30,000 of them throughout the building,” she said.

When she gets her class into one of the circuit courtrooms on the third floor, she asks for 12 volunteers who would like to be the jury. Once they’re seated, she picks a judge, defendant and plaintiff, defense and plaintiff attorneys, bailiff and court recorder. She motions the judge to enter and the bailiff loudly says “all rise” and everyone in attendance stands.

“Sitting in those specific positions in the courtroom is something they’ll remember for a long time,” said Seberger.

People from children to senior citizens are simply awed by the grandeur of the Greek/Roman/ Renaissance architecture of the building. The Smithsonian Institute calls it the finest of the nation’s county courthouses. It’s on the National Registry of Historic Places and is considered a National Historic Landmark.

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In addition to the architecture, the building has frescos on the walls of the dome. It has Fort Wayne and Indiana historic scenes and relief carvings on the walls of the courtrooms. Over the years, water damage and a buildup of dirt and grime took its toll on the artworks and the building in general. During the New Deal era, the Works Progress Administration painted over the peeling murals.

Anniversaries

Restoration began in 1995, took seven years and cost $8.6 million to bring it back to the way it was in 1902. The original cost of the structure was $817,553.59 and took only five years to build.

The Fort Wayne native and South Side High School graduate said she has become an enthusiastic history buff.

“When we moved back to the city from Austin, Texas, after 37 years, I participated in a ‘Be a Tourist in Your Own Home Town’ program and was overwhelmed by the courthouse,” she noted.

“I decided right then that I wanted to be a tour guide. I have taken more than 500 students through this beautiful building over the past four years.”

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