"the door" to LaPorte

LaPorte, French for “the door”, was established at the edge of the prairie in northern Indiana.  The village was first platted in 1833 by five men who purchased 400 acres at the land sales office in Logansport.  In that same year a government land office was established in LaPorte and with its establishment a number of pioneers and land speculators began to move through the community.  LaPorte was chosen as the county seat of LaPorte County and the town was incorporated in 1835.  City government was adopted for LaPorte in 1852 when the population reached 5,000; ten years later the population reached 8,000.  The city’s streets were described as “wide and well shaded” with “long rows of dark green maples” and “groves and lakes and charming drives”.

By 1916 LaPorte was described as the “City of Maples” with a population of 15,000.  Interurban lines had been developed by this time and connected “suburban retreats” with the downtown.  The Lincoln Highway had been routed through the city in 1913 bringing motorists and a national channel for distributing the products manufactured by LaPorte’s leading industries.  The growth and prosperity realized in the city’s manufacturing sector during the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries is witnessed by the grand and imposing homes constructed by their founders in the Indiana and Michigan Avenues Historic District.  A substantial addition was created on the south side of the original plat of the city by Capt. A. P. Andrew Jr. where much of the housing in the northern part of the Indiana and Michigan Avenue neighborhoods was created.  As additional plats followed, the boundaries of the city continued to push south. The size and styles of housing also changed from early mid nineteenth century homes, to more substantial brick and frame Queen Anne homes, to early 20^th century styles as the city expanded.  The houses at the far south end of the district are more modest and begin to fall into mid 20^th century styles.

One area of particular interest was a small community unto itself called “Hail Columbia” that was established in about 1850.  A few homes from that period still exist in the area and include the Pulaski King House and the Dr. Rose House.  Hail Columbia loosely included the area between the west side of Michigan Avenue and the east side of Indiana Avenue, along Osborn Street, also known as “King’s Alley” due to its relationship with Pulaski King’s house.  The area was eventually surrounded by the city by 1860, and then finally incorporated by LaPorte.

The Indiana and Michigan Avenues Historic District is located along Indiana and Michigan Avenues on the south side of the city.  The district encompasses several blocks between Maple and Kingsbury Avenue.  Within the district are some of the city’s finest homes representative of styles from the second half of the 19^th Century and first half of the 20^th Century. 

The Afters - Light Up The Sky - Official Video

Couldn't help but think of this video while watching fireworks at the big Blue this past Sunday.....and the times in my life when God lit up the sky.

A long summer of good byes.

 

Before summer had a chance to begin, it seemed I couldn't get out of the "good bye" mode I had been in after losing both my step-grandparents through the winter and spring.  After a long illness, we said good bye to the first cousin on my dad's side to pass from this life to the next.  It's those times when you start to feel that time is passing too fast and that the people that you have carried along with you your whole life......aren't going to be there forever.  Here are my two siblings and a few of my first cousins gathered at my cousin Jim's memorial service.  Bonus points if you can identify who my sister and brother are above.  If there was any good to come from it, I had the chance to see my dear cousin who grew up in North Carolina, for the first time since my grandfather's funeral in 1995.

 

 





 

In late July the last of my grandmother's siblings passed away.  He was 82.  He'd been pastor of the same church in Hammond for as long as I had been alive and had just retired the year before.  That seems crazy.  My only regret here is that in all my working trips to Hammond I never stopped by to see him.  It had probably been 20 years.  And there was his name on the church's sign by the road:  Pastor.  Only a few blocks from the main route I took in and out of the city.  We called him Bugsy.  I always assumed it had something to do with the famous outlaw.  So, we asked several of the family why "Uncle Bugs"?  His wife said that my grandmother (centered above) said that he had bug eyes and she called him that since they were little.  Uncle Bugs is on the left above.  Seems to me, the outlaw story is more complimentary.  My dad looks sooooo much like Uncle Bugs that some distant family, and particularly the parishioners, looked as though they had seen a ghost as my dad made his way to the front of the church.  And Bugs' daughter even gasped, and said, oh does he look like dad.

 

As I sat in the little old suburban church on Hammond's south side, in a diverse congregation Martin Luther King would be proud of, I got a bit overwhelmed at how they loved this guy.  Never preached to throngs, never broadcast across the airways.....just kept with the same folks for generations.  Because he loved people.  And they loved him back.  Well done, good and faithful servant.

 

 

About August I got word that my cousin, much more like a little brother to me, was investigating a job in Hawaii....as if Florida wasn't far enough away.  The kid grew up surrounded by cornfields and hay, went to Ball State for marine biology, became a rock star in the aquarium world, and wrote his ticket to paradise.  Dang if I won't miss him......that's a whole lot of wet stuff between us man!  So, we cousins gathered again in August and gave him a proper send off.  Another good bye.  Don't we look like a motley bunch.  He's in the shades.

It was a long summer of good byes.  Take a good look around, slow down.....before you know it everything changes.

From Attica to Monticello by mail & canvas

 

Attica Post Office

If you think that I am building to some kind of grand thought behind the posts on New Deal-era post offices and murals....I hate to disappoint you.  The regionalism painting that was being done in the Midwest during the 1920s-1930s is probably my favorite style.  Throw it in a historic building and you've captured my attention.

 

And so it happens when my New Deal radar goes off passing a post office that screams "hey, mural inside!"  No, seriously, I hear that when I drive by.  And I quickly pull over, camera in hand, and mosey up the steps into a lobby where the locals are pulling the mail out of there p.o. boxes as if it were still 1932.  Except that some guy, clearly from out of town (I give off that vibe), snaps a few shots and scurries back out the door.....with eyes following me all the way back to my car.
So it should be no surprise that on my way back from Covington a few weeks ago, a detour through Attica (to stop at Wolf's Chocolates), put me on the street past their post office and ding, ding, ding....the radar went off.

Attica's Trek of the Covered Wagon

Attica's post office is pretty unassuming, standard, government-issue 1930s, but with an exceptionally detailed stone doorway.  A recollection of historic post office murals made me think....hmmm....I think Attica has one.  So, up the steps and into the lobby, snap, snap.....and on my way.  Now-nothing against Attica here, but they have the smallest commissioned mural I've seen.  It is entitled Trek of the Covered Wagon by Reva Jackman, a woman artist.

Monticello Post Office

And then just last week I was on my way back from Delphi via Monticello, which is slightly out of the way but necessary for a stop at the Whyte Horse Winery.  Now-I've been in Monticello several times and had always wanted to stop by their post office, so this trip I made time.  Monticello's post office is again, straight from the period, but somehow they managed to get a building entirely cut from limestone.  And a further unusual detail is the fluted return walls of the doorway and windows.  It has a hint of both classicism and modern architecture.  Nicely done USPS.  The mural in the Monticello Post Office is a classic example of Midwest Regionalism capturing the heartbeat of farm life.  The painting is entitled Hay Making and it was done by Marguerite Zorach in 1942.



Monticello's Hay Making

It may be all-together appropriate that I touch on a couple of New Deal era "get America back to work" projects on this Labor Day.  For all the crap FDR gets, we've inherited some pretty amazing things from the labor of the 1930s.  Stay tuned....I'm sure there will be more.



Hoosier pioneer left a New England mark in LaPorte County

1842 Captain Ames House, LaPorte County, IN

One of the oldest homes in LaPorte County is the Captain Charles Ames House located northwest of LaPorte.  Ames served in the War of 1812 from his home state of Massachusetts.  Ames came to LaPorte County by waterway in 1836 two years after his brother, George, landed in Michigan City and established a business.  George Ames became a wealthy philanthropist who had a hand in establishing the public library in the 1890s.  Immediately Charles struck out to build a cabin and later a barn in 1838 which still exists.  He built a Federal style home inspired by his New England roots in 1842.  The house features corner posts exposed inside the home, a certain New England construction method and quite rare to find in the Hoosier state.

In 1856 Charles son, Augustus Ames, constructed a home near his father's house.   Augustus Ames kept a diary during the year of 1851 which gives some insight into the life of a young pioneer man.  The diary is part of the Ames Family archives of the La Porte County Historical Society.  Augustus recorded his daily work activities that included dragging logs that had been cut on the property to the mill during the winter months of January and February.  He also recorded cutting rail timber for fences in a number of entries and mentioned doing so once with Mr. Mayhew, who was likely his future father-in-law.  He mentioned cleaning the ice house and stable and “drawing corn into the barn”.  In the spring Augustus mentioned making wagon shed poles, digging holes for them and covering the wagon shed, presumably with wood siding.  He also mentioned cleaning out the barn and boarding up the ice house.  Later that spring he split rails for fencing and replaced the old fence.  In the early summer Augustus recorded mowing the orchard.  He also recorded buying a yoke of oxen and going to pick them up.

Augustus also recorded in his diary other activities of pioneer life besides work.  He mentioned several times attending Sunday meetings to hear Minister Cunningham preach at the “brick school house”, the location where Augustus also attended “singing school”.  He recorded attending an event with his future bride, Amanda “in the forenoon”.  Augustus mentioned visits from his father’s uncle Thomas, and from uncles Fisher and George, who lived in Michigan City.  He recorded attending the funeral of Uncle Fisher’s baby in Michigan City on March 16^th and James Orr’s funeral on April 6^th.  James Orr was a La Porte County pioneer with a neighboring farm.  Augustus recorded attending the dedication of the Methodist Church in La Porte on July 27^th.   He also recorded that his father had “come home from the East”, presumably to visit family.  Augustus had also traveled east going to New York with his uncles Fisher and George to visit his grandmother.  At the end of 1851 Augustus recorded a trip he made to Milwaukee.

 

The Ames' family homesteads are being carefully preserved and were listed to the National Register of Historic Places in 2011.

The Garwood House: inspiration for the Golden Dome?

Garwood House, c. 1900

John Garwood Jr. came with his father to LaPorte County in 1831 where he later married in 1854.  John Jr. inherited his portion of his father's estate and constructed an impressive farmhouse west of LaPorte.  The historic John Garwood Jr. farmhouse was constructed in the "Italian Villa" style in c. 1866, which, as the name implies, reflected the rambling villas of the Italian countryside.  John and Cynthia left the home to their son, George, in 1893.  George established Garwood Orchards, a fixture in LaPorte County's countryside to this day.  George's sons later inherited the farm.

Garwood farm as depicted in LaPorte County History Book, 1874

While the house is architecturally extraordinary, the more fascinating aspect is the home's possible connection to Northern Indiana's most iconic example of architecture.....the Golden Dome.

Just east of the Garwood house is the William Orr House, constructed in 1875 and designed by Chicago architect Willoughby J. Edbrooke.  Edbrooke became a nationally-known architect who designed the Georgia State Capitol and the Treasury Department in Washington DC, among many other large-scale government buildings.  But what does this have to do with the Garwood house and the Golden Dome?

Note the cream-colored brick and burgundy-colored stone trim

The level of design craftsmanship in the Garwood house led me to research the only other contemporary architect-designed building in the vicinity, the Orr house.  That led to the discovery of Edbrooke's design for the new administration building at Notre Dame in 1879.  But what caught my eye was the match of materials used on ND's administration building and those used on the Garwood house.  The use of cream-colored bricks on both buildings was maybe coincidental, but the use of burgundy-colored sandstone window embellishments was uncanny....I've yet to run into it anywhere else in Northern Indiana.  Other minor stylings of ND's administration building also have the feel of the Garwood house.

Note the similarity of materials used

So, the question became if Edbrooke didn't design the Garwood house, did the Garwood house inspire Edbrooke's design of Notre Dame's new administration building?  I tend to think that Edbrooke had a hand in the design of the Garwood house, which predates the Golden Dome by about a decade, but no paperwork has ever been found to connect the architect with the home....it could quite possibly be one of his earliest designs.

The Garwood House was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2011.

Valpo's link to the invention of the hypodermic needle

Conrad and Catherine Bloch settled in Valparaiso and became early merchants of the city.  They constructed their large double-pile brick home in the Italianate style in about 1873.  Luther Bloch Jr., a grandson, leased the building to Dr. Harvey Cook who turned the building into a hospital in about 1923.  Dr. Cook was a resident of Valparaiso living just blocks from the hospital at Morgan and Chicago Streets.  The hospital closed in the early 1930s.

Harvey Samuel Cook, born in Gilman, Illinois in 1888, is best known for his contribution to medicine by his invention of the hypodermic syringe.  Cook, while an Army-medic during World War I and in need of local anesthetic as quickly as possible, developed the idea for the syringe by drawing inspiration from the cartridges used by Army riflemen.  Cook created brass syringes with double-pointed needles which locked into place; he cut glass tubes and rubber pencil erasers which were used for stoppers.  Cook filed an application for patent of the hypodermic syringe on October 21, 1916 and it was patented on June 26, 1917.  He branded it as the Cook “Carpule” System of Hypodermic Medication. At this time he was a resident of Worthington, Indiana.  Later he moved to Chicago and established Cook Laboratories from which the syringe was produced.
 
Dr. Cook relocated to Valparaiso, Indiana and established the Valparaiso Hospital and Sanitarium in about 1923.  Cook graduated from the Kankakee Conservatory of Music at Kankakee, IL and later attended Valparaiso University for two years.  He married Ida Mae Doty in Valparaiso in 1910.  He entered the Chicago College of Medicine and Surgery and graduated in 1913.  He began his medical practice in Gilman, IL, but entered World War I as a medic, receiving the rank of first lieutenant.  Cook returned to Valparaiso in 1920 and established his hospital a few years later, but was “forced to give up the venture because of a health breakdown.” Cook served as city health commissioner and city councilman, both positions he resigned from due to his illness.  Cook was credited with extensive oversight of the city’s health and was credited with helping the community avoid large scale illness during a major typhoid epidemic in 1933.

Today the former hospital is a single family home again.  It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010.

A nod to Labor for this upcoming holiday

Rows of worker housing in the Standard-Pullman Company Town

A neighborhood comprising approximately 150 homes is located in Hammond's northeast side near the old industrial area that made the city an important steel and manufacturing hub for both rail and ship freight alike.  The neighborhood is one of only a very few "company towns" constructed in Indiana and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2011.  Known as the Pullman-Standard Historic District, the community radiates out from a center public square on Columbia Avenue.  The Standard Steel Car Corporation was founded in Butler, Pennsylvania in 1902 by John Hansen and “Diamond Jim” Brady with financial backing by Andrew Mellon.  The company became immediately successful as one of the largest steel rail car manufacturers in the United States.  Eyeing Hammond, Indiana as a prime location for production because of shipping ports and steel production, SSC opened a second plant at this location in 1906.  Their manufacturing facilities grew to cover over 350 acres, with a workforce of 3,500 men and production of 100 cars a day by 1912.

In 1917, during World War I, the United States Housing Corporation formed to provide housing near industries supporting the war effort.  Standard Steel Car Corporation was one such company and benefited from what became known as “Industrial Housing Project No. 457”. The USHC contracted with architects and planners to establish development designs; Chicago architect J. C. Llewellyn was selected for the Hammond site.  The plan began to be implemented in 1918 with build-out of 131 buildings by 1919.  The design included single-family homes, duplexes, quadplexes, and a large hotel/boarding house in a large central block.

Standard duplex design

In 1919 the Standard Steel Car plant became the scene of a long and violent summer of marches, confrontations, and riots centered around labor issues at the plant. SSC, while recognizing the labor union representing most skilled, native born labor, did not recognize the union representing less skilled and predominantly non-native born laborers. This union was known as the Amalgamated Union. In August of 1919 4,000 rioters manned barricades at the plant’s entrance. A month later a thousand men gathered at Columbia Avenue and Highland Street and began a march toward the SSC plant. The men, gathered behind the American flag, collided with police officers near the end of Highland Street. Four workers were shot and killed and sixty more were injured. The strike ultimately collapsed in October and the Amalgamated Union ceased to function.

Standard quadplex design

The strength of demand remained strong for the Standard Steel Car Corporation.  In 1929 Chicago’s Pullman Corporation purchased SSC. The corporation was Hammond’s largest employer with over 5,000 men just as production came to a halt at the onset of the Great Depression.  The company closed its doors in 1929 and remained closed for nearly 10 years. Little remained in Hammond other than small industry. In 1934 the company became a merger of SSC and Pullman and was renamed Pullman-Standard Car Manufacturing.  By about 1938 thousands were returning to work as the war in Europe resuscitated the railroad business, waking the Pullman-Standard plant.  After the Germans invaded Poland in 1939 the plant received an order for 500 freight cars. The company became prosperous again during World War II as manufacturing lines were retooled to produce field guns, 81 mm mortars, shells, and thousands of 28 ton Sherman tanks.  After the war the company “shrugged off” government contracts and returned to railroad car production. During the second half of the twentieth century the company saw expanded production of freight cars in 1966 and production of Amtrak passenger cars during the 1970’s.  1981 saw the last production of railroad cars; the company closed the same year.

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But if you want to have a discussion on architecture.....

The 1876 "Deutsche Evanelische Lutheranische Saint Paulus Gemeinde" in Michigan City

We're not about a building.

It's like a badge of honor we wear in our churches today.  What we really should say is we can't afford to be about a building.  I can buy that, or, other things are of higher priority.  That at least sounds spiritual....depending on what the priorities are.  Saving souls of course.  Maybe this is a part 2 to the last post, but the prior post's message was about preserving a place for God in our churches, not so much about the architecture....but if you want to have a discussion on architecture, let's go.

But our lack of attention to architecture goes far beyond ecclesiastical buildings.  This infatuation with starving architecture has also made a tremendous impact on civic and government buildings.  Here we say we're just being prudent with taxpayer dollars.  Well, who could argue against that and not come across as a liberal?

Now, at the same time we expect where we buy our coffee or hamburgers to look and feel like the latest trend because if it doesn't, we'll just go elsewhere.  I always get a little bewildered when I see a building not more than 20 years old get shuttered or demolished in order to make way for the latest and greatest model.  And we're more than all right to open our wallets wide to pay for that, but forget about something that might represent our highest cultural ideas or much more, how we feel about our Creator God.  He's good with just a warehouse, but Starbucks better make me look and feel good about myself.

And then there are the temples that we create for ourselves.  Our mini-castles outfitted with the latest home theaters, craft rooms, a bath for each bedroom, our personal studies, elaborate great rooms, and the list goes on and on.  And we stay in them on an average of 5 years now until we upgrade to the newest neighborhood "Generic Estates".  But collectively, as a society, it's about pinching pennies.

Fountain County Courthouse, 1934, built during the depths of the Depression but with magnificence

At one time the two types of buildings that have suffered most at this shift in our cultural thinking were built with little expense spared as symbols of what we espoused and aspired to be.  Government buildings, particularly city halls, schools, and courthouses were constructed as the pride of their communities almost in competition with their surrounding towns and counties.  Terms such as "magnificent" and "splendor" were often used to describe a community's public buildings during the 1800s and early 1900s.  When was the last time you heard those to describe the newest municipal building?  I'm thinking specifically about Republicania County's new jail as I write this.

Religious buildings have also taken quite a hit.  And a personal hit to me.  The church of my ancestors in Bremen has a date with the wrecking ball and in its place a parking lot and a fancified pole building.  Gone are the iconic stained glass windows and vaults that inspired the soul to better commune with God.  Instead metal walls, white-boxed inside, and little if any natural light define our new churches today.  When only up to the 1970s, congregations still felt compelled to build with a bigger picture in mind.  Church architecture's rich history of not only teaching its members through inconographical representations in murals and windows, but also through subconsciously inspiring its members to contemplate the glory of God in its architecture is gone....long gone.  In its place larger and larger screens, more lights, and more sophisticated sound equipment.  In many ways replacing the real and tangible with hype.

I'm not in favor of waste, or excess in any form.  But it is time to return to a thoughtful and meaningful approach to the design and creation of space in which we live and give shape to our most important civic buildings.  It's what we expect out of our coffee shops-it seems like our churches and public buildings ought to be at least as important.

The Loss of Sacred

Once while driving around with my elderly great aunt, she pointed at a corner in the countryside where two roads intersected.  It was obvious something had been there at one time due to the large old trees and the lay of the land; now it was the extended lawn of a modular home pulled up to the road just south of the corner.

"There was a church at that corner..."  my aunt said "...my dad knew the man who tore that building down, his whole family got terribly, terribly ill and he died.  That's why my dad said never would he tear down a building that had been used for God's house."  Based on my knowledge of the area, I guessed that the church was razed over 100 years ago.

We, well, not me, tear down churches all the time.  I imagine if there was some hard-and-fast conclusion that people who tore down old religious buildings became cursed and died, I suppose that church demolition would have ceased a long time ago.  We've turned churches into homes, parking lots, antique stores, bakeries, and even night clubs.....that's got to be worse than a bulldozer.  I'm familiar with the practice of "consecrating" and inversely, "de-consecrating" buildings for the use of God's purposes.  That seems to add some level of understanding that the building itself may be a vessel for God's use, not unlike what we are called to be.

But I think my aunt's trepidation went beyond this thought that the building itself was a fixed sacred site not to be tampered with.  I think it was the larger concept of the callous loss of something sacred that should concern us.  I recently gave a presentation about a downtown historic district that once included a grand building constructed in 1867 for use as a Methodist church.  When I showed the slide with the photo above, aside from the local, older, Methodists in attendance, folks were unaware that the building existed.  The building was reduced to an auto garage in 1912, then almost entirely razed by the time its back wall became part of a pizza shop today.  Magnificent house of worship-turned auto garage-turned pizza place.....nothing sacred about that.

I suppose the reverse could be true.  New congregations are springing up in strip malls, downtown storefronts, and warehouses (like our church)....they are taking the secular and making it "sacred"?   Maybe.  I don't want to get too side-tracked on church architecture's present state of decline, but it would be a great history lesson for churches to understand the importance architecture once played, and could still play, in lifting the soul in worship.  Far greater I think than a light and sound show.

I'd be the first one to acknowledge that God's presence is not confined to any one building or particular site....that a church is more about the people than the building, but even then do we understand the sacred?  And I'm not talking about specific music, ritual, or how we dress.  I'm referring to how we engage in the presence of God-and yes-specifically on Sundays for the purpose of this discussion.  Is church routine?  Is it just a place to have a good time with our friends?  When we walk into the sanctuary doors, in what state is our heart?  Are we rushing through a ritual (that occurs even in our evangelical churches) that is too busy to acknowledge we might just be in the presence of God?  I remember a communion service once when the pastor was breaking the loaf of bread and a small piece fell to the floor.  An elder went to pick up the bread and the pastor stopped him; instead he knelt down and carefully picked it up using the two pieces yet in his hands.  Sacred.  And I remember a time when a joke was told during communion.  It just felt really, really wrong.

I can recall just a handful of services in my 40+ years when it became clear that God "showed up".  Oddly enough.......He wasn't planned into the schedule of service.  It seemed as though His spirit found a small window, entered, and the rest of the schedule was given to Him.  I don't think that most of us even come to church with the expectation that God might actually show up.  To me this is the loss of sacred.  As much as I'd love to save old churches, I'd much prefer the fight to save a "place" in our churches for God.

While Christ's crucifixion may have torn the veil to provide access to God's presence, God is no less holy.....His presence is no less deserving of our sanctity.  I think about all that the priests went through to enter the Holy of Holies to meet with God.....and yet, do we even contemplate much less lose a step-when we stride into our sanctuaries Sunday after Sunday?  It may actually help if they didn't look like warehouses, but I suspect our brothers and sisters in the most beautiful cathedrals may suffer some of the same ambivalence to God's house.  Let us bring back the sacred-not an outward show, but that rendering of our hearts and minds with the expectation that God might actually show up if we let Him.

How to get rich in 5 years

Mr. E.....pondering the ancients

Another five year anniversary came and went on August 1st with little fanfare.  My wife was in Haiti and my kids were with their grandparents, otherwise it may have been more eventful.  August 1 marked the first day of my preservation/consulting business after I left the only post-college job I had known in 2008.  I wasn't sure where that leap of faith would take me.

Well, I'll tell you where it took me.

I spent the better part of the day on August 1, 2013, trompsing around in the woods with a most interesting 88 year old man with a long career in agriculture on a federal level, and a profound history with politics.  The old kind.
Mr. E, as we'll call him, had a number of questions about the history he has managed to preserve on his family's farm that dates back to 1854.  The history of the farm includes some fascinating glacial kettles that are believed to have been American Indian meeting sites, along with a known Indian trail that traverses his property.  As would be expected, I was soaking it in.

He asked if I would stay for lunch.  Sure.  A helper made us sandwiches, we said grace, and dove in.  After some more interrogation by Mr. E, he stopped and said "what absolutely fascinating work you are involved in".  I concurred, then I followed it up by saying it was never going to make me rich.  To which he suggested the measure of wealth is not in dollars, but in the richness of people in our lives and then what we give our lives to.....the satisfaction of enjoying what we do.

Well said.  I'd still like to be pulling down six figures, but well-said nonetheless.  And it was probably what I needed to hear on this 5-year anniversary of sorts.  I get dang frustrated on any number of issues that arise but I still set my own hours doing what I enjoy.  I'm not sure you can put a price tag on that.  I've been fortunate to have met so many great people, visit cool and interesting places, and learn some fascinating Hoosier history.....and to this day when people ask what I do, I get a smile on my face when I say, well, it's a little hard to explain.

Historic Michigan Road signs are popping up!

Byway sign in Marshall County

Almost 5 years ago to this day I met up with a guy named Jim I had only corresponded with over this blog on the topic of the Michigan Road.  The Michigan Road was the first state-commissioned highway Indiana created between 1829 and 1836.  It was established to spur development in the state north of Indianapolis and connect/create ports in Madison and Michigan City.  Jim and I traveled the historic route in Fulton and Marshall Counties and shot a lot of photos in Rochester where we grabbed a bite to eat.  And it was there that we talked about what we could do to foster an appreciation of one of Indiana's most historic highways.  A few months later I attended a state byways conference on behalf of the Indiana Lincoln Highway Association and the venue for our objective became crystal clear.  We needed a "Historic Michigan Road Byway".

So, working with some contacts we already had in the north half of the state, we held our first informational meeting in Rochester in January of 2009.  Over the next several months we built a coalition of folks just like us, who cared about the road and understood the economic benefit a byway could bring to their communities.  In November, 2009, we switched our efforts to the southern half of the state where state byways had been developed many years before.  As I say "they got it" so it was an easy sell.


Byway sign in Clinton County

By the end of 2010 we completed our byway application and submitted it to INDOT.  Review and approval took almost a year to obtain, but in September of 2011 the Lieutenant Governor declared the Michigan Road a state historic byway.  Over the course of the following year we organized and completed our non-profit filings and late last year developed some long-term planning that led to our first objective:  signing the route.

That meant more approvals and raising nearly $8,000.00 in order to secure the first group of signs that cover 12 of the 14 counties the route passes through.  Cities, towns, counties, businesses, tourism offices, and individuals made the purchase possible.  We picked up the signs in June and have been distributing them to INDOT district offices and local municipalities through which the route passes.  Because INDOT is responsible for installing the signs on state roads, and most of the Michigan Road is composed of state roads, the bulk of the signs are being installed per INDOT district office.  The Crawfordsville office has already installed the signs on their stretch through Clinton and Boone Counties.  The LaPorte District office has the remaining northern part of the state and the Seymour office has the southern counties of Jefferson, Ripley, and Decatur.  Where the route is maintained by counties or cities, those local authorities are installing their signs.  The Town of Argos and Marshall County have installed their signs in the last few weeks.


Byway sign in Argos


Our goal is to have the entire road signed by the end of this year.  Some additional fundraising and permitting will need to be done in Marion County-Indianapolis, which is probably the toughest nut to crack.  Marion and Shelby Counties are under the Greenfield District office and will be secured at the same time.  Five years.  It may seem like a long time.....but not when you're starting from scratch, educating the public, building a coalition and forming a non-profit, and did I mention we were working with INDOT?  In all seriousness, the people that make up our board and have gotten us to this point are some of the best Hoosiers I have met.

From just a conversation over a couple of sandwiches in Rochester.....to a state-wide economic and tourism development in 5 years.  Not bad.  It still took longer to build the road.


Boston's Freedom Trail

Happy 4th of July to you from the Freedom Trail in Boston...Paul Revere style.

Revere's grave

Revere's house

 

Stature of Revere in front of the Old North Church

Old North Church

"one if by land, two if by sea"

Our own Freedom Trail

Our family vacation this year took us to up-state New York to spend time in the Adirondacks, then down through southern Vermont into Massachusetts, then out to Boston, Plymouth, and Cape Cod.  This is why in large part I've been absent from posting the last two weeks.

I thought I would share a few pictures from our travels, and as the timing seems appropriate for this week leading up to the Fourth, pictures themed to our nation's beginnings.

Ft. Ticonderoga, New York
The fort dates to the French & Indian War, but became a key victory and post in the Revolution when it was captured from the British and held by the Colonial Army.

At the fort

Revolutionary War memorial, Bennington, Vermont
The 300' monument commemorates the Battle of Bennington and Brigadier General John Stark

At the grave of one of my Revolutionary War ancestors, Nathaniel Cole, in Binghamton, New York.
Cole was a native of Connecticut when he enlisted in the Colonial Army.  He then relocated to New York and established a village at "Cole's Hill" with a tavern and post office on the farm-to-market road, now called Colesville Road.

Chief Papakeecha and the village he left behind

Indian Village Cemetery, 1836, and Highway 5 on the left

If I am ever late to anything, you can assume one of two things have happened.  Either I am in a ditch, or my standard arrive 5-10 minutes ahead of schedule was over-compensated for and I arrived 20 minutes ahead of schedule......so I'm doing a little sight-seeing.

That's what happened when I arrived in Cromwell a full 25 minutes ahead of the meeting at which I was scheduled to speak.  So I kept driving south of out Cromwell-having never driven that stretch of Indiana Highway 5.  Not sure of where I would turn around, when I got about a mile and a half south of town my jaw dropped as I entered into a little hamlet that just bled history.

Original post office, c. 1855 (left) and church, c. 1880 (right)

The highway dropped and curved toward a small cemetery.  There was a short string of 1800s homes on the left side of the road, along with a picturesque chapel, and a small church on the right side of the road with the cemetery.  These were all situated on a small bluff.  I had entered "Indian Village" not to be confused with the incorporated town in St. Joe County.

Indian Village Brethren Church, 1879

The town, once called Alcinda, was the reservation home of the Miami Indian chief by the name of Papakeecha...which sounds more Italian to me.  The chief, whose name means "flat belly" (no doubt a product of 6 minute abs) lived in the village from 1827-1834.  He was chief from 1820-1837, at the time of his death and just before the removal.  An Indiana Historical Bureau sign marks the location of an Indian stove in the village where the Miamis prepared their last meal before being removed from their reservation lands.  The cemetery dates to the 1830s and a few nearby buildings, including the village's first post office, date to the early settlement period by European Americans.

Houses on the village's "main street" and bluff, all c. 1870

Yeah-it usually is pretty easy for me to get jazzed up about these things.  But I thought the setting was exceptional.  As I shot pictures in all directions from the cemetery entrance, I'm sure the mechanic across the street wondered....what the keecha anyway.

What Ben Hur hath wrought

Study of General Lew Wallace

During the summer of 1996 I spent a long weekend with a college friend from Hoopston, Illinois, which is just over the state line west of Lafayette.  He introduced me to the west central region of Indiana with tours of Attica, Williamsport, and as far east as Crawfordsville.  There we visited a great little architectural gem, now open to the public, with a fantastic history linked to Indiana's golden age of authors and artists.

General Lew Wallace, a Civil War general and an author made famous by his book Ben Hur, was from Crawfordsville.  He married well, which allowed him to pursue his writing career.  His famous work, turned into movies in the 20th century, created more wealth for him than that of his wife's family.  Wallace, already owner of a stately home in Crawfordsville, decided that he needed a study (read:  man cave) on his wooded estate.  So in 1880 he designed a wonderful Romanesque building with a private terrace, moat stocked with fish, inglenook, and large room with a vaulted atrium.  Carved faces on each of the four walls of the building depict characters in Ben Hur and a second book he thought would surpass that book, but bombed.

Statue of Lew Wallace near the study

A few weeks ago a friend and I were attending an Indiana Landmarks meeting in Greencastle.  On our way back through Crawfordsville I suggested we stop at Lew Wallace's study for a short tour.  I'd say I need a man cave like this.....but I guess that's what the barn is for.

Both being familiar with local oral tradition that Wallace wrote a portion of Ben Hur while vacationing at Lake Maxinkuckee, we asked the tour guide if he knew if the story was true.  He said he had heard the story, and that Wallace did vacation on the lake, but given the timing of when the book was written, it was doubtful because Wallace was in Crawfordsville and the southwest during its writing.  Bummer.

Inglenook in the study-something every man cave needs

I've never read Ben Hur, and I don't think that I've ever seen the 1950s film version in its entirety.  But this did give me some incentive to do so.  Here is a link to the General Lew Wallace site:  http://www.ben-hur.com/_index.php.

Receiving the mail in Hobart and Culver

I'm sticking with the New Deal post office theme for another post.



Hobart Post Office

I am working in Hobart, Indiana's downtown area.  Realizing they also have a New Deal-era post office, camera in-hand, I joined with the Hobarites in visiting the lobby of their post office to see if it was home to a public works supported mural.  Sure enough.  During the 1930s post office construction was prolific under the New Deal.  Post office design was all being handled from the post master general's office, which explains why so many look the same.  While the design style of Hobart's post office stayed true to the basic elements of the Colonial Revival style, which characterized nearly all post offices built during the 1930s, certainly elements of the then-popular Art Deco style were brought into play.  This is most obvious in the strong vertical window and entry bays and in the carvings of eagles above the windows.  The Hobart Post Office was constructed in 1937.

Culver Post Office

 Contrast that to the over-the-top Colonial Revival style application on the post office constructed in the tiny lakeside community of Culver.  It does make me wonder if there was a method in determining how designs were selected for each community.  Culver's post office is Colonial Revival in the truest sense of the term.  Right down to the Jeffersonian cupola on its roof.  The Culver Post Office was constructed in 1935.  Having known it was home to a public works mural, the last time I was in downtown Culver-camera in-hand again, I visited the lobby and shot a few pictures.

Receiving the mail in Hobart with town founder, George Earl's gristmill in the background

While generally all of the public works post office murals stuck with the theme of receiving mail in their communities, awarding commissions to complete the works to a wide variety of artists resulted in a broad interpretation of the theme.  Hobart's mural was painted by William Dolwick in 1938.  He depicted the early years of the community and included the founder's grist mill which would have lasted another 15 years before it burned in the 1950s.

Receiving the mail in Culver

Culver's mural was painted by Mrs. Henrick Mayer and was installed in 1938.  She selected the community's internationally known military academy as inspiration for her work.  In it she shows academy cadets alongside local residents and farmers receiving their mail.  At that time the academy was just over 40 years old, a scene certainly more modern at that time than Hobart's.  Another interesting feature of Culver's mural are the small vignettes the artist created on either side of the main picture.

Main Street Ligonier

Ligonier's Carnegie Library

Traditionally a street dubbed "Main Street" is the commercial heart of a community.  It brought people in and out of town through the downtown retail area lined with tightly packed one to three story buildings....what we recognize as our historic downtowns today.

There are a few places where this is not the case though.  For example, in Plymouth the main commercial corridor is Michigan (Road) Street while Center Street, the founders' version of Main Street, lies a block to the west.  It functioned as a sort of civic corridor with the post office, town hall, courthouse, several churches, and later the Carnegie library all lining the tree-lined street.  A similar situation exists in Ligonier where Main Street lies a block west of the commercial corridor.  Here too are provisions for a public square, their Carnegie library, post office, police station, and at least one church-or should I say synagogue.

Ligonier Post Office

Post Office Interior

Ligonier's Main Street is very broad, as though the founders had intended it to be an avenue planted in the center with trees.  It has impressive homes beginning at its north end/intersection with the original Lincoln Highway, that continue south for nearly a dozen blocks.  Mixed among the impressive homes are a handful of architectural gems.

New Deal Mural

Their Carnegie library is situated in the public square that served the town as a park since its inception.  Across the street from the library is the town hall and police station.  A block to the north is Ligonier's Colonial-style post office created under the New Deal projects of the 1930s.  It also has a large interior mural created under the same program.  A fraternal lodge is located next to the post office.

Ahavas Sholom Synagogue

A few blocks to the north is the Ahavas Sholom Synagogue.  It was constructed during the 1880s and replaced the original wood-frame synagogue.  Ligonier had a large Jewish population until it dwindled in the latter half of the 20th century.  The synagogue is the second oldest in the State of Indiana.  Its stained glass windows reflect the religious heritage of those that built it.  The library owns the building and it is used by the Ligonier Historical Society for tours.

Interior of the synagogue.  The stained glass depict Biblical friends David & Jonathan.

Ligonier also has an impressive collection of large Queen-Anne and Classical Revival homes, many built by leading Jewish merchants and industrialists of the town.  A historic stone fountain and clock are located in a small triangular park on the south side of the entrance into the downtown.  Across from the park is an historic gas station that has been converted into a town museum.