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Martinsville the county seat of Morgan County, was platted in 1822 on the east bank of the White River. Both Centerton and Waverly were first considered as the county seat, but several influential citizens donated land in Martinsville for public buildings if it would be located there.
The town is thought to have been named in honor of John Martin of Washington County, Indiana, who served as one of the first Morgan County Commissioners. A total of 42 blocks were included in the first plat, with block 18 reserved for the courthouse square. The first public sale of lots was in June 1822.
The area's first settlers were the Jacob Cutler family, who came in the years preceding the town's founding. The first hewn log house in Martinsville was built in 1820 by Jacob Cutler just north of the northeast corner of the square. By 1822, some six families resided in the new county seat. Among the first merchants in town were Joshua Taylor and John Sims. Two early industries included a tannery, established in 1824 by John Sims, and the Cutler family distillery.
Between the years 1835-1850, Martinsville shipped a large volume of pork and grain via the White River. Several coopers established shops here as a result of the shipping industry. By the 1850s, the town had grown significantly and included a woolen mill, sawmills, flour mills, a wagon shop, and several furniture shops. Religious congregations included Presbyterian, Methodist Episcopal, and Baptist.
The railroad arrived in Martinsville prior to the Civil War, linking the town to Indianapolis and Chicago. In the antebellum years, new vernacular and Italianate style commercial buildings reflecting a growing prosperity soon lined the courthouse square.
A number of prominent industries were established in Martinsville during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. During the 1850s, Giles Mitchell established a brickyard on the western edge of Martinsville; he later moved it to North Main Street. Brick for the Morgan County Courthouse was produced at his brickyard. In 1895, the Adams Brick Company was formed from a consolidation of three smaller brick companies. The Adams Company utilized the shale found in the cliffs along Blue Bluff Road in the northern part of the town. In 1909 the Poston Brick Company was formed and built a plant next to the Adams Company. Neither complex remains today.
Perhaps the most famous industry in Martinsville was sanitariums. Mineral water was discovered in 1889 by Sylvanus Barnard while drilling for natural gas. His discovery helped Martinsville become one of the nation's leading health resorts. At one time, Martinsville contained 11 different sanitariums.
Among the earliest mineral water spas was the Martinsville Sanitarium, located in the northwest part of town. It originated in 1892 with two predecessors. The Nutter and Webster/Major/Artesian Sanitarium and the original Martinsville Sanitarium, were frame structures built side by side. In 1897 and 1898, W. K. Bellis, an Indianapolis bicycle manufacturer, bought both structures and combined them into one large, rambling facility he named the Martinsville Sanitarium.
In 1916, Walter A. Kennedy bought the sanitarium and embarked on an ambitious expansion plan. By 1927, he had torn down and replaced the two early sanitariums with a massive Tudor Revival structure. Kennedy promoted the new and improved Martinsville Sanitarium as "One of the Three Best Known Watering Places in America." Today, only about one-fifth of the Martinsville Sanitarium exists. The surviving building was the first hotel structure built in 1925-26.
The other surviving sanitarium is the New Highland Mineral Springs Sanitarium, founded in the late 1880s. The first structure was built in 1896 by W. C. Banta and Dr. C. J. Keegan. A one story brick annex was built in 1924 incorporating a new feature: an inclined interior ramp linking the two buildings. A five story brick addition was completed in 1929. On March 11, 1929, the original frame section of the complex was destroyed by fire. What remains is a large part of the 1920s brick building.
The access to transportation routes, the development of a diversified industrial base and the popularity of the town's sanitariums combined to produce a thriving economy for Martinsville during the early-twentieth century. A number of the downtown's most significant buildings date to the early twentieth century. The Martinsville City Hall is one of the county's only examples of the Renaissance Revival style. The Neoclassical First National Bank of Martinsville is representative of many small town banks of this period. An unusual object in the downtown area from this period is the neon sign on top of the Italianate building at 22-28 East Morgan Street. It was restored in 2001.
Today, Martinsville remains as an economically viable community. With the growth of the Indianapolis metropolitan area, the town has balanced its dual identity as a bedroom community and a typical Indiana small town.
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