Who Was Francis Costigan?

Francis Costigan was born on March 4, 1810, in Washington, D.C., and spent his early years in Baltimore and Philadelphia. He trained as a carpenter in Baltimore and was listed as a builder in the city directory by 1835, the same year he married his wife, Eliza C. Taylor. In 1837, Costigan and his wife moved to Madison, Indiana, where they had three children: Frank, Sarah (Sallie), and Theodore. 

Costigan established himself in Madison during a period of growth. By 1850, he was listed in the census as a carpenter with $10,000 in real estate. Shortly afterward, the family relocated to Indianapolis, where Costigan became one of the city’s earliest professional architects. By 1855, he was listed in the Indianapolis city directory both as an architect and as proprietor of the Oriental House hotel. Over the next decade, he continued to work as an architect, eventually focusing solely on design.

Francis Costigan died of tuberculosis on April 18, 1865, just three days after President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. Because of this, an obituary has never been found; only a death notice marks the end of his life. His funeral was held at the Oriental House in Indianapolis, and he was initially buried at Greenlawn Cemetery before being moved to Crown Hill Cemetery in 1866 as part of the Costigan Family plot.