27 August 2010

What puts the "rad" in Radnor?


There's a sleepy little town in Carroll County somewhere between Flora and Delphi whose main street turns to gravel upon exiting the town. Have you ever heard of Radnor? Population: 60...maybe? Radnor was established in 1883 along the Monon railroad. I think the intersection above is way overdue for a traffic light.
Radnor Church of God?

My wife's grandfather recently passed away which took us on a trip back to her roots where the good folks of the Randor United Methodist Church fed the family some real down-home cooking. A guy like me is always intrigued to learn how these little towns came to be and I never shy from turning off the main highway to see these little burgs.



My boy was getting restless at the dinner so after things started to break up I said, "c'mon, let's go walk around Radnor". The town has about four blocks with some homes on the periphery. The Methodist church appeared to be the only non-residential building in town, although it appeared Radnor once hosted a Church of God too (nice brickwork!). As we walked we counted 24 houses. That's about double the size of Linkville-but that's for another day. There was a small creek on the west side of town. I assumed there was a school at one time, but I didn't get a sense of where it would have been located. I noted one particularly nice old house that seemed to fit with the architectural styling of a handsome old carriage house so I assume that they were probably part of the same parcel, and maybe it was the farm on which the town was platted since it appeared older than 1883?.....and maybe it belonged to a Mr. Radnor? That's usually how it works. These are pictures of the home & barn below:


At any rate-while the circumstances were unfortunate-I appreciated having my kids experience their roots. Their great grandpa Porter helped move the Radnor Church to its current location about 60 years ago. From where...I'm not sure. It didn't appear that there was much suburban sprawl affecting land prices. Although based on a sign stapled to a fence post the internet had found its way here. Radnor Methodist was also where my wife's parents were married-50 years ago TOMORROW! Happy Anniversary!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

is that Radnor or River City 2020? If the locals don't start being a little more upbeat they are going to talk this place into being a near ghost town also.

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