Porter County Courthouse (Indiana)

Valparaiso has retained an active downtown. It remains a mix of government, retail and business center, with a mixed residential and service area (retail and restaurants). Numerous economic changes have not changed the basic character, historic courthouse area. The historic district retains the distinctive turn-of-the-19th-century architecture, supporting numerous small specialty shops, shaded sidewalks, and a people friendly environment. The Downtown District, is anchored on the Porter County Courthouse. It includes 14-blocks surrounding the square, bounded on the north by Jefferson Street, on the east by Morgan Street, on the south by Monroe Street, and on the west by Napoleon Street.

The Porter County Memorial Hall, also known as Memorial Opera House, is an historic Grand Army of the Republic memorial hall located in Valparaiso, Indiana. It was the meeting place of Chaplain Brown GAR Post No. 106, one of 592 GAR posts in Indiana. Designed in 1892 by a local architect, Charles F. Lembke., using Romanesque styling, it was built in 1892–3 to seat 100 people. It was also used as the local opera house. Local legend says that Wm Jennings Bryan spoke at the hall during the 1896 presidential campaign. Others who have been to the hall include Theodore Roosevelt, John Phillips Sousa, Marx Brothers. Decline began with the advent of the movies, for which it was converted. By the time of World War II it was an abandoned building. Beginning in 1955, the Community Theatre Guild leased the property and began maintaining it once again for theater productions, continuing to do so under a lease agreement with Porter County until the county again took full possession in the late 1990s to facilitate structural renovation and restoration.: 47  The Board of Commissioners for Porter County, who manage and maintain the structure, restored the hall in 1998, and established a new community theatre troupe and public management for touring productions, allowing the building to continue to be used as a theatrical and assembly facility as originally intended. The Memorial Opera House is located at 104 Indiana Avenue just east of the historic Porter County Jail and Sheriff's House. At the time of construction, Indiana Avenue was called Mechanics Street. The Opera House was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. It was restored in 1998.Today, the Memorial Theatre Company produces six theatrical performances each year and host community concerts and other events. p: 74–75 

The Loring Residence and Clinic was the first facility built to provide medical services to Valparaiso, Indiana. The residence has continued to provide for public service through its current use by the Valparaiso Woman's Club. Dr. Loring used his home as his medical office until his death in 1914. It was Loring's initial efforts that brought medical care to the county and provided for the first hospital. Although private, it became the county's first public hospital when Loring sold the building in 1906 to build his home and clinic. Loring was a physician and surgeon. He was vice president of the Indiana State Medical Association and founder of the Porter County Medical Society.

The DeForest Skinner House or Skinner Homestead, is a place on the National Register of Historic Places in Valparaiso, Indiana. It was placed on the Register on June 24, 2008. Built around 1860, it is a two-story carpentered Italianate structure with a double brick foundation, weatherboard walls, and asphalt roof, located three blocks north of the Porter County Courthouse. The register listing includes a carriage stepping stone by the north porch, with the family name upon it.: 5 DeForest Skinner acquired the recently built house around the time he married Rachel Ann Maxwell in 1861. Skinner had arrived in Valparaiso in 1847 at age eleven with his parents John and Emily Skinner; he displayed business acumen early in life as he worked for various commercial interests. From 1874 to 1878, as a member of the Republican Party, he served as a member of the Indiana Senate. Then in 1880 and 1888 he represented his area at the Democratic National Conventions. He also served as the President of the First National Bank from 1887 until his death in 1902. He was also Indiana's representative at the World's Congress of Bankers in 1893. Furthermore, he was on the Chicago and Grand Trunk Railroad's board of directors. His death in 1902 occurred in the house.: 13 Upon Skinner's death, the house was under control of his son Leslie Reid Skinner, born in 1873. Leslie became the railroad's director after his father's death, making him the youngest railroad director in the United States.: 14  Leslie and his wife sold the house in 1919 to Louis Szold, who lived in the house until 1946. Szold started renting out the house in 1930, and subsequent owners continued to use the house as apartments until December 2005, when current owners Kirk and Caroline Conner began renovating the house.: 11, 14 

The Haste-Crumpacker House, in Valparaiso, Indiana, was built in 1887.According to the National Park Service: The Haste-Crumpacker House is a locally outstanding example of Late Victorian Eclectic architecture. The style and methods of construction reflect an era of prosperity for the city of Valparaiso as well as the advancement in construction technologies. Built for George Haste in 1887, the elegant home was described in local newspapers of the time as an “elegant residence” and a “substantial improvement to Valparaiso,” reflecting the social importance and economic prosperity that much of Indiana experienced in the decades following the Civil War. It's one of 17 individual properties nominated for the National Register by Partners in Preservation.The building was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on June 24, 2010. The listing was announced as the featured listing in the National Park Service's weekly list of July 2, 2010.

Valparaiso Collegiate Institute was an institution of secondary education in Valparaiso, Indiana. It was opened in 1861 by the Presbyterians in the community after the Methodists on September 21, 1859, had opened the Valparaiso Male and Female College, the forerunner to Valparaiso University of the Lutheran University Association.The Collegiate Institute was located on the lot where the city's Central Elementary School now stands. The Institute was a two-story building with four large rooms. When a system of public schools was organized in 1871, the trustees purchased the Institute and used the building as a public school. The original building was expanded by adding a third story, and also by building an exact replica just to the north and connecting the two structures, producing a sixteen large rooms and a chapel. The structure was torn down in 1903.

The congregation of Immanuel Lutheran Church in Valparaiso, Indiana, was founded in 1862 by 69 German families. The church building was erected in 1891 by Henry Lemster and his son, Charles. A fire gutted the building in 1975, marks of which can still be seen on the altar and pews. The Immanuel Lutheran congregation moved to a new site on Glendale Boulevard, while 60 members formed a new congregation named Heritage Lutheran Church and restored the historic building.An undated old photo shows a taller steeple and a two-story parsonage adjacent to the parish hall, which is no longer extant. A photo from the courthouse tower northward, c. 1900, shows the taller steeple on the church.The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

Charles S. and Mary McGill House is a historic home located at Valparaiso, Porter County, Indiana. It was built in 1926, and is a two-story, Z-shaped Tudor Revival style brick dwelling. It has a steeply pitched cross-hipped roof and features stuccoed areas with half-timbering and massive chimneys.: 2 It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2013.

The Italianate House at 608 Academy Street, Valparaiso, Indiana was constructed by Conrad and Catherine Bloch in about 1873. The double-pile brick house has a commanding presence on a double lot at the corner of Park and Academy Streets. A brick woodhouse dates to about the same period as the house. The garage dates from about 1940. The house was converted to the Valparaiso Hospital and Sanitarium by Dr. Harvey Cook in about 1923. It has been converted back to a single family home.Conrad and Catherine Bloch came to Valparaiso and opened a store. They built their brick home in the Italianate style. About 1923, Luther Bloch Jr., a grandson leased the building to Dr. Harvey Cook. Dr. Cook opened it as a hospital. The doctor lived east of the hospital at Morgan and Chicago Streets. Structural changes were made to accommodate the hospital. When it closed I the early 1930s, it was turned into apartments. It continued in use as apartments until 1975. In 1977, it was converted back to single-family use. A student apartment remains on the upper floor.

The William B. McCallum House, built in 1887, is an Italianate Style house in Valparaiso, Indiana contains many of the basic elements of Italianate design, including brick masonry, deep eves, thick cornice features of wood and protruding flattened arch brick window lintels and a two-story bay window.William McCallum, with his wife Susan and their two children came to United States from Canada in 1878. He is listed as a “dry goods merchant” in 1884 with a store at 13 East Main, a few blocks west of his home. In 1899–1900, the firm of Specht-Finney-Skinner opened a department store at 11 East Main. McCallum appeared to have joined that firm as he was no longer listed as self-employed. At age 84, according to the 1930 Census, McCallum was still working as a dry goods salesman. In that year, the house was valued at $12,000.

Valparaiso station was a train station in Valparaiso, Indiana. Initially served by the Pennsylvania Railroad, it was the outbound terminus of the Amtrak Calumet until that service's discontinuance in 1991.Amtrak began service here on April 25, 1976, as a stop of the Capitol Limited. A fire destroyed the original station building and a small shelter replaced it.

Heritage Hall is the oldest building on the campus of Valparaiso University in the U.S. state of Indiana. Built in 1875 by John Flint, it was used as a residence hall for men. In 1878, a fire destroyed the third floor. The building was later purchased by Richard Abraham Heritage, remodeled into a two-story school of music, and renamed Heritage Hall. At different times throughout its history, Heritage Hall underwent renovations. It was used as a dormitory, a barracks (during World War I), a machinery classroom, and finally a library when Valparaiso University was bought by the Lutheran University Association in 1925. In 1959, the new Moellering Library had been completed and the building was converted to classrooms and offices. Heritage Hall was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.Today, Heritage Hall is part of the Valparaiso University School of Law and houses the Valparaiso University Law Clinic, which provides free legal services to qualifying members of the community. In 2006, the then-Dean of Valparaiso University School of Law, Jay Conison, announced that the addition attached to Heritage Hall, formerly the University Mail Center, would be demolished during the summer of 2009. A new addition to Heritage Hall, known as the Lawyering Skills Center, was built in its place. The University's Law Clinic will operate from this new facility, and the building will host other activities focused upon practical skill-building for law students. The construction of this new building was made possible by a $4 million donation.