OnIn [[October 31]], [[1834]], [[Solon Robinson]] and his family become the first settlers to stake a claim in the area that will eventually become Crown Point. In [[February]], [[1837]] Lake County is incorporated into a county with [[Liverpool]], [[Indiana]] as the county seat. Later that year Solon Robinson funded a $500 project to build a new wooden county courthouse in Crown Point and thus Crown Point becomes the county seat. However it wasn't until [[1868]] that Crown Point was actually incorporated into a city. In [[1878]] construction began on a new more impressive county court house and clock tower. This new court house, known as the ''Grand Old Lady'' was build in the center of town and would become the dominant feature of Crown Point (further additions to this courthouse would be made from [[1907]]-[[1928]]). Campaigning for the presidency of the United States, [[William Jennings Bryan]] addressed a crowd from the steps of the court house in [[1896]]. Crown Point was the site of Cobe Cup Car Race and one of its winners was [[Louis Chevrolet]] in [[1909]]. On [[March 3]], [[1934]], gangester [[John Dillinger]] escaped from the Crown Point Jail which was claimed to have been "escape-proof". Popular legend has it that Dillinger escaped by carving a fake gun out of a block of wood. Newspapers made fun of Crown Point's handling of Dilinger by dubbing the city ''Clown Point''. The '''Old Lake County Courthouse''' was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in [[1974]] and the new Lake County Government Center opened on the north side of the city the next year.
Because Crown Point had no waiting period for marriage licenses, the city became a popular place to get married and became known as the '''Marriage Mill'''. Many famous people came to Crown Point to be wed including [[Tom Mix]], [[Rudolph Valentino]], [[Cassius Clay]], [[Jackson 5]] patriarch [[Joseph Jackson]] and [[Ronald Reagan]].
