Edwin F. May (1823 – 1880)

Indiana State House. Photo Wikipedia.

Born in Boston, Edwin May made his way to Indianapolis at age 18 with his carpenter father in 1842. He worked the next eight years as a carpenter, studying architecture informally, and then served as the contractor for the building of the former Johnson County Courthouse in Franklin, Indiana. Following his informal education and contracting jobs, May began to design buildings himself and is credited with designing the Franklin County Courthouse, the former Sullivan County Courthouse, and the Shelby County Courthouse, all in 1852. These were followed by the Decatur County Courthouse in 1854, the Allen County Courthouse in 1860, and the Knox County Courthouse in 1872. In 1877, May designed the Hamilton County Courthouse in the classical French Renaissance style.

Also in the 1870s, May designed Horace Mann Public School No. 13 and the Women’s Building at the Central Hospital for the Insane, both in Indianapolis, as well as the Northern Indiana Prison in Michigan City, and other public and factory buildings. According to an 1870s advertisement for his firm, he had four patents for the design of fireproof buildings and could also design jails with “Saw and File Proof Prison Grating.”

With May’s experience, it was no surprise his design for the new Indiana State House successfully beat 26 other entrants in 1878. But in August 1878, at age 55, he suffered a stroke that left him paralyzed. He moved to Jacksonville, Florida, to recuperate, but died there in 1880. Adolph Scherrer (also buried in Crown Hill Cemetery), an architect working in his office, took over the project. The building was not completed until 1888, leaving it uncertain how much different its construction and plan revisions would have been had May lived. (Scherrer, who designed Crown Hill’s Waiting Station, was featured in our April 2024 newsletter, which you can read HERE.)

May is buried with his first wife, Desdemona, who died in 1865, and his second wife, Sarah, who died in 1901, in Section 25, Lot 191. Four small children are also buried in the lot. Two other children lived to adulthood and are buried elsewhere.