Indiana Landmarks

This month, Indiana Landmarks lost an ally with the passing of Linda Kay Christian Davis, whose parents Catherine and Dr. John Christian left an architectural legacy in their home, the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Samara in West Lafayette. Through the John E. Christian Family Memorial Trust, Inc., Davis worked with Indiana Landmarks to co-steward the property and make plans for its future, making the home open to the public so that others could share her parents’ vision and passion.

Learn more about Samara: https://www.indianalandmarks.org/our-historic-sites/samara/

📸: Linda and Catherine Christian during construction of Samara (photo 1); John and Linda Christian at Samara (photo 2); and Linda Christian on the Samara terrace (photo 3), all courtesy John E Christian Family Memorial Trust; Samara living room (photo 4) by Nathaniel Allaire⁠

Samara - The John & Catherine Christian House

🚗 UPCOMING TOUR - AUGUST 24: Noble County Ramble: Historic Sites & Local Bites

See landmarks saved and restored around Noble County while sampling sweet and savory local food offerings on this go-at-your-own-pace tour of six sites, including Rome City's Sylvan Cellars (pictured).

Sylvan Cellars began life as the dairy barn for the adjacent Kneipp Springs Sanitarium and Convent. Beginning in 1901, Catholic nuns took over a health resort above Sylvan Lake, operating a spiritual health spa promoting spring water treatments, exercise, and herbal remedies. Guests bathed in the springs, drank the waters, and prayed in the chapel and outdoor shrine. The nuns sold the property in 1976, and its uncertain future landed it on Indiana Landmarks’ 10 Most Endangered list in 2011.

In 2015, Rachel and Nathan Schermerhorn converted the former dairy barn into an event center and tasting room. The rest of the site is operated as the Patroness of America Center, welcoming pilgrims for mass and devotions.

Learn more: https://www.indianalandmarks.org/event/noble-county-ramble

Sponsored by Indiana Landmarks and Visit Noble County.
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📸: Todd Zeiger

FOR SALE ⛪️ 400 East North Street, Crown Point

The 1886 Church Foundation is looking for a preservation-minded buyer to adaptively reuse a historic church and school in Crown Point, Indiana.

The buildings and site have been an integral part of the neighborhood and local community since they were founded as part of Trinity Lutheran Church in 1886. Constructed of local clay fired brick and native stone, the building remains Crown Point's oldest church. The cornerstone of the adjacent school building was laid in 1938.

Trinity Lutheran relocated to a new building in 1958, and both the church and school were adapted into apartments. The buildings need complete interior rehabilitation, as well as extensive exterior repairs including a new roof and masonry rehabilitation.

Located close to Crown Point’s downtown courthouse square and currently zoned residential, the highly visible location makes it ideal for many potential uses if rezoned. The large, two-story former sanctuary offers 2,480 square feet that could be repurposed for restaurant, exhibit, or performance space. Measuring approximately 4,100 square feet, the adjoining former school would be ideal for a small business space. The site includes convenient on-site parking.

The historic buildings will be sold as-is with protective covenants held by Indiana Landmarks to ensure their long-term preservation. Serious inquiries only. Contact 1886 Foundation, [email protected], for questions and pricing information.

📸: Kurt Garner⁠
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🎉 We're grateful for the work of Indiana Landmarks Black Heritage Preservation Program summer interns and for the program's 2024 scholarship recipients.

Photo 1 (from left to right):⁠
⭐️ Ahmaud Caroll-Tubbs received a $10,000 Black Heritage Preservation Program scholarship. He is studying landscape architecture at Ball State University.

⭐️Intern Benson Kinyanjui is studying architecture, preservation, Africana studies, and landscape architecture at Notre Dame University.

⭐️ Intern Isaac Onwodi is studying Africana History at Indiana University Indianapolis.

⭐️ Marsh Davis is President of Indiana Landmarks.

⭐️ Intern Keagan Powell is studying city planning and architecture at Ball State University

⭐️ Eunice Trotter is Director of Indiana Landmarks Black Heritage Preservation Program.

⭐️ Erin Carter also received a $10,000 Black Heritage Preservation Program scholarship. She is studying curatorship at Indiana University Bloomington.

Indiana Landmarks launched the Black Heritage Preservation Program to combat the erasure of African American history throughout the state. The program provides funding to support the restoration and preservation of Black heritage sites. This summer, the program's interns are conducting research of Black heritage sites throughout the state.

UPCOMING TRADES WORKSHOP 🔨 On July 26 & 27, get hands-on experience installing a cedar shake roof during a two-day workshop at the historic Navarre Cabin in South Bend. Led by Steve Hartley of Heritage Trades Partners and heritage trades expert David Gibney, participants will learn to remove and properly install a new wood shake roof. No previous skills required.

For more information visit https://www.indianalandmarks.org/event/cedar-shake-roof-installation/

This event is one in a series of trades training workshops presented by Indiana Landmarks and South Bend TradeWorks aimed at equipping historic homeowners with DIY knowledge and contractors with in-demand skills to offer clients with historic building repair needs.⁠
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📸: Todd Zeiger
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South Bend TradeWorks The History Museum

On Muncie's Washington Street, a modest Victorian house bears the sign "Emily Kimbrough Home Museum," identifying the c.1898 house that once served as the residence of the globetrotting author. A bestselling novelist, fashion writer, and magazine editor, Kimbrough (photo 2) reflected on her childhood in her book, "How Dear to My Heart," and demonstrated her affection for her Indiana home by returning for a ceremony in 1978 celebrating the neighborhood's inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places.

Today, Muncie's East Central Neighborhood Association is making repairs to the home to secure its future, tackling improvements as they secure funding and prioritizing repairs to make it usable for events and programming that connects the house to the culture and history of its namesake.

Read more about the property in the May/June issue of our member magazine, Indiana Preservation: https://www.indianalandmarks.org/resources/indiana-preservation/indiana-preservation-archives/

📸: Courtesy Tom Collins and Delaware County Historical Society

📣 Indiana Landmarks has selected Indiana Barn Foundation to receive the 2024 Local Leadership Challenge Grant, providing $100,000 to help the preservation non-profit hire its first full-time executive director.

Alarmed by the loss of historic barns across Indiana, Indiana Barn Foundation formed in 2013 to support preservation of the iconic rural structures, aiming to raising awareness about threats to barns and boost financial incentives for their rehabilitation. ⁠An all-volunteer group, Indiana Barn Foundation offers educational programs and workshops on barn heritage and preservation and conducts assessments of barns around the state. The group also coordinates an annual barn tour highlighting local agricultural heritage in various parts of Indiana.

“Indiana Landmarks’ selection committee was impressed by Indiana Barn Foundation’s statewide efforts to engage rural residents and the hands-on participation of its board members,” says Marsh Davis, president of Indiana Landmarks. “The group presented a clear plan for a new full-time director who can lead the organization in expanding its important mission."

Learn more about Indiana Barn Foundation's work at their 2024 Forum and Annual Meeting held Saturday, July 20 in Greenfield. The day includes a talk on the saving of the Littleton-Kingen Round Barn (pictured) following damage from a tornado. Attendees can also tour the structure. For more info: https://www.indianabarns.org/events

📸: Danielle Bachant-Bell

🏘️ $135,900 gets you not one, but TWO neighboring historic houses for sale in beautiful Wabash.

Seeking a buyer with vision for 458 N. Cass St. and 462 N. Cass St., which will be sold together as one package. With a few updates, 462 N. Cass is move-in ready, offering the perfect place to stay while remodeling the neighboring house to its original beauty.

The houses are part of Indiana Landmarks' ongoing work to increase homeownership in the city's National Register-listed North Wabash Historic District where we have been able to acquire several historic houses and make stabilizing repairs before selling them with preservation covenants to buyers to finish the work. ⁠📸: Courtesy Lundquist Real Estate

👉️ Get the full listing details and see additional photos on our website: https://www.indianalandmarks.org/for-sale/458-462-n-cass-street/
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🔨 On July 26 & 27, get hands-on experience installing a cedar shake roof during a two-day workshop at the historic Navarre Cabin in South Bend. Led by Steve Hartley of Heritage Trades Partners and heritage trades expert David Gibney, participants will learn to remove and properly install a new wood shake roof. No previous skills required.

Cedar Shake Roof Installation - Indiana Landmarks Learn how to install a new cedar shake roof during a two-day, hands-on workshop.

📖 What's on your summer reading list? If you lived in Indiana in the early twentieth century, chances are, you may have read something written by a Hoosier writer. From 1880 to 1920, so many Indiana authors gained national renown that the period became known as the "Golden Age of Indiana Literature." Places connected to these writers still dot the landscape around the state, including a grand estate known as Hazelden near Brook in northern Indiana.

Sometimes called the "Aesop of Indiana," playwright and humorist George Ade built Hazelden in 1902 as a retreat from the commotion of his work in Chicago, where he frequently hosted celebrities, political figures, and fellow writers.

Upon his death in 1944, Ade left Hazelden to Newton County. Today the George Ade Preservation Commission is charting a course for its future, with plans to rehabilitate the estate as a museum, events venue, visitors center, and outdoor green space.

Read more about the property's rich history and plans for its future in the May/June issue of our member magazine, Indiana Preservation: https://www.indianalandmarks.org/resources/indiana-preservation/indiana-preservation-archives

📸: Courtesy George Ade Preservation Commission⁠
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Among landmarks embedded in communal memory, public libraries hold cache as community hubs. When such buildings lose their original purpose, generations of local goodwill make them ripe for reuse. In the northern Hamilton County town of Atlanta, Indiana Landmarks was able to help the Town preserve its historic Carnegie library and find an inventive new use that maintains its community status, with plans underway to reuse the building as Town Hall and municipal offices.

Read more: https://www.indianalandmarks.org/2024/06/repurposed-library-will-carry-on-as-community-hub/

📸: Alex Brooks⁠

How it started vs. How it's going....

Drive into the small Washington County town of Campbellsburg off State Road 60 and you can’t miss the John T.C. Wilkins House on Sycamore Street; the Queen Anne-style house flaunts a wealth of ornamental details. When it fell into disrepair and demolition seemed imminent (photo 1), Indiana Landmarks took possession. Now we're completing a turnkey rehabilitation before offering the house the for sale.

Over the past several months, a team of contractors have been at work to return the Wilkins House to its former grandeur, replacing damaged siding and trim, making structural repairs, upgrading electrical and plumbing systems, repairing interior finishes, duplicating missing architectural features, and more. The Washington Community Foundation granted $5,000 toward the project.

The Wilkins House will be available for sale once work wraps up later this summer. It will be sold with preservation covenants to make sure its spectacular architectural features are preserved for the next generation of admirers.

Visit our website to read more about the house and stay tuned for news when it goes on the market: https://www.indianalandmarks.org/2024/06/restored-house-almost-ready-for-its-royal-debut/

📸: Greg Sekula

🚗 AUGUST 24, 2024 Noble County Ramble: Historic Sites & Local Bites

Bring your appetite for local cuisine and restored landmarks to Noble County for a go-at-your-own pace tour highlighting six historic sites, including several Indiana Landmarks helped save such as a repurposed opera house, historic dairy barn turned event center, and a formerly endangered c.1840 private home and bed-and-breakfast.

Complimentary bites and refreshments offered at each stop from Noble County restaurants, bakeries, and cafes will keep you fueled throughout the day. Sponsored by Indiana Landmarks and Noble County Convention and Visitors Bureau.

See the full itinerary and get details on our website: https://www.indianalandmarks.org/event/noble-county-ramble/

📸: Wolcott House by Todd Zeiger; Evers Plainview Farms by Evan Hale; Sylvan Cellars Event Center & Tasting Room by Todd Zeiger; Howard's Opera House, Albion by Todd Zeiger; Gene Stratton-Porter State Historic Site by Jared Christiansen Images; and Sower House by Todd Zeiger⁠
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Visit Noble County

This year, Indiana Landmarks launched new outdoor walking tours in some of the Circle City’s oldest historic districts and charming historic neighborhoods. Now through September, join our expert guides to explore little-known Indianapolis history, hear tales of memorable and influential historic characters, and learn about each neighborhood’s distinctive architecture.

Learn more:

Indianapolis Walking Tours - Indiana Landmarks See historic Indianapolis from a unique perspective on walking tours with Indiana Landmarks.

Join experienced window restoration experts on July 13 for a day-long, hands-on workshop in South Bend hosted by Indiana Landmarks and South Bend TradeWorks. Attendees will take a deep dive into removing, reglazing, and priming historic double hung windows. Learn more:

Wood Window Restoration 201 - Indiana Landmarks Learn how to restore historic wood windows during a day-long, hands-on workshop.

📢 UPCOMING DEADLINE: July 15, 2024 at midnight EDT for Indiana Landmarks’ Sacred Places Indiana Fund

Are you a member of a congregation in a historic house of worship in Indiana? You may be eligible to apply for matching grant for capital improvements to your historic church. Learn more and apply on our website by July 15: https://www.indianalandmarks.org/sacred-places-indiana/

Pictured: Broadway United Methodist Church in Indianapolis received $400,000 from Indiana Landmarks’ Sacred Places Indiana Fund for exterior masonry repairs on the limestone façade and bell tower of its 1927 church building. As a condition of the program, the congregation is raising an additional $400,000 in matching funds for the improvements, which the congregation hopes to get underway soon. 📸 Courtesy Rev. Aaron Hobbs

👏 Three cheers for The Time Travelers program established by the Ball State CAP Center for Historic Preservation, winner of Indiana Landmarks' 2024 Sandi Servaas Memorial Award for its innovative curriculum aimed at helping children gain a deeper appreciation for history and their community’s heritage.

Recruiting the next generation to care about historic places and community heritage can require outside-the-box thinking. In Muncie, children ages 9-12 sculpted building façades in clay, trained camera lenses on column capitals, and practiced building landmarks of their own as part of the Time Travelers program, a workshop series organized by the Ball State CAP Center for Historic Preservation.

Through scavenger hunts and walking tours of downtown, students discovered local landmarks in a new way, learning about architectural details and taking photographs to re-create them in clay. Back at their home base at Madjax, a maker-space located in a historic factory, students explored the building looking for clues to how it developed over time—learning how wood, brick, and stone served as building materials. To test their new-found knowledge of architectural styles and historic details, the Time Travelers took guided tours of the Cornerstone Center for the Arts and Emily Kimbrough House and neighborhood.

“I believe how a community values ‘place’ is intrinsically linked to the health of that given place,” says J.P. Hall, associate professor and leader of the program. “By encouraging students to look around and see what they encounter every day in a different light, we’re planting the seeds about the importance of architecture, design, community, and making quality places.”

📸: Courtesy the Ball State CAP Center for Historic Preservation

Ball State Historic Preservation

🎉 Congratulations to The Fox Lake Preservation Foundation, winner of Indiana Landmarks' 2024 Sandi Servaas Memorial Award for their work to raise awareness of Fox Lake (photo 2), a rare surviving resort community established for African Americans outside Angola in the 1920s. Today, it retains a collection of modest lakeside cottages and untouched natural areas, remaining a special retreat for those that live and summer there.

Seeing how new development has changed the character of similar communities, a group of concerned property owners formed the non-profit Fox Lake Preservation Foundation in 2020 to be proactive in protecting the lake’s natural environment, cultural heritage, and historic architecture.

The small all-volunteer group began with educational efforts highlighting the community’s history, including sponsoring installation of a historical marker (photo 1) sharing Fox Lake’s story. To help preserve and share historic images of the lake, they partnered with Indiana Album to sponsor a Juneteenth scan-a-thon, inviting people to bring photographs stored in family albums and attics to be digitally scanned (photos 3-4).

The foundation has also focused on preserving Fox Lake’s built environment, hiring a professional photographer to document the community’s still-standing historic cottages and advising owners on maintaining them. The group won a $15,000 grant from the Standiford H. Cox Fund of the Central Indiana Community Foundation to rehabilitate the K.T. Thompson Lodge (photos 5-6), a gathering place for resort residents since 1968.

“We want Fox Lake to be remembered and remain standing for the next 100 years,” says Kathryn Hawkins, foundation president and third-generation resident. "It’s thrilling to receive this award because I feel like so many people are working to get places of importance on the map, so being recognized for the work we’re doing in this small piece of the world is just so flattering."

📸: Courtesy Andy St. John, Teresa Vanstratt, Carol Karst-Wasson, and Indiana Landmarks' archives⁠
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$202,000 in grants for restoration and rehabilitation is being distributed to nine sites significant to Indiana’s African American history through two funds established by the late Eli Lilly chemist and preservation champion Standiford “Stan” Cox.

Stan Cox, who passed away in 2019, joined Eli Lilly and Co. in 1957 as its first Black chemist. He established the two funds with Central Indiana Community Foundation (CICF) to support the restoration, preservation, operation, and ongoing maintenance of African American historic sites in Indiana. Indiana Landmarks serves as preservation advisor on grants from the funds.

Visit our website to read about how funds will be used: https://www.indianalandmarks.org/2024/06/grants-help-preserve-nine-historic-african-american-sites-in-indiana

📸: Allen Chapel AME Church, Indianapolis by Evan Hale; Lynn Street School, Seymour; First Missionary Baptist Church, Liberty; and Shaffer Chapel AME Church, Muncie from Indiana Landmarks' archives; Lebanon AME Church by Mark Dollase.⁠
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Central Indiana Community Foundation

In case you missed it, a few photos from the relocation of South Bend's Poledor House last week. Wolfe House and Building Movers from North Manchester moved the brick two-story house approximately two blocks to its new location within the Chapin Park Historic District.

Constructed c.1915, the house is one of the city’s best examples of Craftsman-style architecture. It is named for the Poledor family, who operated the Philadelphia confectioner’s shop and restaurant in downtown South Bend for over 70 years. ⁠Members of the Poledor family flew in from Canada to watch the house move, including (photo 3, from left to right) Alex and Stephanie Manikas, Peter Corolis, as well as Ted Poledor’s longtime local friend Marie Pauwels.

Nearby development left the home as an outlier in what had previously been a residential neighborhood, making the Poledor lot valuable for future commercial use. To save the historic house, St. Clair Development donated it to Indiana Landmarks, which begin began making plans in late 2022 to relocate the house to a new site last used as a parking lot. After some stabilization and rehabilitation, Indiana Landmarks will offer the house for sale with covenants to protect its architectural character. 📸: Todd Zeiger
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Wolfe House & Building Movers, LLC.

🤔 What do you remember from fourth grade Indiana history? On July 31, Indiana Landmarks opens our popular Indiana history field trip as an evening walking tour for all ages. Step outside the textbook and discover the people, places, and events that have shaped the Hoosier state on your very own field trip. Along the way, guides will highlight the history and architecture of downtown Indianapolis landmarks including the Indiana Statehouse, Soldiers and Sailors Monument, L.S. Ayres building, and more.

Learn more about the Historic Downtown Walking Tour: https://www.indianalandmarks.org/event/historic-downtown-walking-tour/



📷: Kelly Harris

🚗 On July 20, Indiana Landmarks' affinity group Indiana Automotive explores Indianapolis on an all-day automotive-themed tour featuring exclusive private car collections and historic sites tied to the city's automotive history—including an inside look at East Washington Street's Cole Motor Car Company building, part of a large complex currently under multi-million-dollar redevelopment that was once home to the early luxury automaker.

Learn more and view the full itinerary: https://www.indianalandmarks.org/event/indiana-automotive-indianapolis-tour/

📷: Cole Motor Car Company building by Evan Hale (photos 1 & 2); Rendering of planned development, The Cole, courtesy of 1820 Ventures (photo 3)

🎉 Congratulations to Halstead Development, winner of Indiana Landmarks' 2024 Renaissance Award for the company's $9 million restoration of the historic Marion National Bank into a mixed-use development known as Ridley Tower. The award recognizes the revitalization of long-decaying historic properties.

Built in 1917, the seven-story building at the corner of Washington and Fourth streets in Marion was vacant and vandalized when it landed on Indiana Landmarks’ 10 Most Endangered list in 2017, languishing under an out-of-state owner unwilling to invest in repairs. But that changed when architect Michael Halstead & Lisa Lanham of Halstead Development purchased the property in 2018, reinventing the landmark as market-rate housing and professional and retail space. Today, Ridley Tower is a revitalized anchor in Marion’s National Register-listed downtown historic district, inspiring additional investment in the city’s core.

“Halstead Development’s revitalization of the Marion National Bank in downtown was nothing short of heroic,’” says Marsh Davis, president of Indiana Landmarks. “In choosing it to receive our Renaissance Award, we salute the vision and investment it took to transform this previously deteriorated property into a remarkable community asset."

Read more about the remarkable project on our website: https://www.indianalandmarks.org/2024/06/marions-ridley-tower-wins-state-restoration-prize/

📸: Ridley Tower "after/during" (photos 1, 2, 3, 5) and "before" images (photos 4, 6) courtesy Halstead Development⁠
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Halstead Architects

🚲️ HISTORY ALONG POGUE'S RUN BIKE TOUR: July 21

Explore the history of Indy’s Near Eastside, from the 1880s to today, on a leisurely guided bike tour hosted by Indiana Landmarks and Pogue’s Run Waterway Committee. Tourgoers will travel on and around the newly completed Pogue’s Run Trail through some of the city’s charming historic neighborhoods, including Cottage Home Historic District and Windsor Park, and bike historic greenways to visit Brookside Park, Spades Park, and Highland Park, key components of George Kessler’s 1909 Park and Boulevard System, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.

Covering approximately 6.5 miles by bicycle over 3.5 hours, tour groups will stop along the way for an inside look at significant sites including the 1912 Spades Park branch of The Indianapolis Public Library, one of two Carnegie libraries in Indianapolis still used for their original purpose, and an 1890 private residence design by prominent local architecture firm Vonnegut & Bohn.

Learn more: https://www.indianalandmarks.org/event/history-along-pogues-run-bike-tour/

📷️: Cottage Home Historic District by Joan Hostetler (photo 1), Indiana Landmarks' bike tours by Wagoner Photos & Digital Art Shop (photos 2 & 4), Nowland Ave Bridge by Evan Hale (photo 3), Spades Park Library by Lee Lewellen (photo 5).

Wednesday is MOVING day! On June 19, South Bend's Poledor House will be relocated from its current location on Marion Street to a new site at 402 Navarre Street.

Wolfe House and Building Movers from North Manchester will move the brick two-story house approximately two blocks to its new location within the Chapin Park Historic District, a move that is expected to take about four hours.

Constructed c.1915, the house is one of the city’s best examples of Craftsman-style architecture. It is named for the Poledor family, who operated the Philadelphia confectioner’s shop and restaurant in downtown South Bend for over 70 years.

Nearby development left the home as an outlier in what had previously been a residential neighborhood, making the Poledor lot valuable for future commercial use. To save the historic house, St. Clair Development donated it to Indiana Landmarks, which begin began making plans in late 2022 to relocate the house to a new site currently used as a parking lot. After some stabilization and rehabilitation, Indiana Landmarks will offer the house for sale with covenants to protect its architectural character. 📸: Todd Zeiger
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Wolfe House & Building Movers, LLC.

🎉 🎶 On June 16, Indiana Landmarks celebrates Juneteenth with a special concert highlighting the history of gospel and blues music and its ties to Black faith, hope, and survival.

Join us! This Sunday, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Indiana Landmarks Center, 1201 Central Ave., Indianapolis: https://www.indianalandmarks.org/event/juneteenth-2024/

🏠️ FOR SALE: $924,900 | Horner House, 2 S. Merrivale Ave., Beverly Shores

Situated atop a dune across from Lake Michigan, the International-style Horner House offers amazing natural views from its stylish Modernist surrounds, a true haven for those looking to get away from it all.

Swiss architect Otto Kolb designed the vacation home for Hungarian emigrants Imre and Maria Horner in 1949, cantilevering the house’s living room over a ravine and employing walls of glass and natural materials in an open layout that maximizes surrounding views of lake in the front and mature trees in the back. Today, the house remains one of the renowned architect’s few American commissions.

The National Register-listed home consists of 3 buildings: the 3-bedroom main house; a 2-story guesthouse with 1 bed, 1 bath and its own kitchen; and the 1-car garage. The property is located 55 miles from downtown Chicago, with Beverly Shores having its own train stop access via the South Shore Line.

The home’s second owner, Jim Morrow, bequeathed the unique house to Indiana Landmarks, trusting us to find an owner who will respect its architecture. The Horner House will be sold with preservation covenants to ensure its long-term preservation. Learn more: https://www.indianalandmarks.org/for-sale/horner-house/

📸: Cory Johnson and courtesy Coldwell Banker Realty