tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28424835286567382122024-03-07T05:41:10.912-08:00INArchitectureINARCHITECTURE. Writing about Midwestern Architecture, History and Design.A Year at the Riverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17836965128291916468noreply@blogger.comBlogger48125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2842483528656738212.post-81049351869739091052015-03-16T09:21:00.000-07:002015-03-16T09:21:13.458-07:00Indianapolis's Lockefield Garden, How Good Architecture, Design, and Heart created a Model Housing Project.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZPzdaauepOyoe6kn1B-iJeQLphP-D078lBdQlGag15tFx2EhjgMiQyuuUpYGyEJTmjb4h986ru0w0kNR2nK05tfWMZIPU0YNBrP2_F8y-GfOEJE7Izpeu32F15ueo4_5K1cVfPH8Bs2Q/s1600/lockefieldentrybig.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZPzdaauepOyoe6kn1B-iJeQLphP-D078lBdQlGag15tFx2EhjgMiQyuuUpYGyEJTmjb4h986ru0w0kNR2nK05tfWMZIPU0YNBrP2_F8y-GfOEJE7Izpeu32F15ueo4_5K1cVfPH8Bs2Q/s1600/lockefieldentrybig.jpg" height="246" width="400" /></a></div>
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The phrase “housing project” conjures bad images of places
like Chicago’s infamous Cabrini Green. We imagine residents living in
below-standard apartments, huddled around cooking stoves for heat and fighting
off dog-sized cockroaches. <o:p></o:p></div>
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But, in 1938, “housing project” was a phrase that resonated
with an entirely different tone when an <st1:place w:st="on">Indianapolis</st1:place>
housing project offered a wholly positive set of visuals. That year, Lockefield
Garden, the city’s first federally funded housing, opened on the near Westside
amid much ballyhoo and with great success.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Funded by the Public Works Administration (PWA), one of the
Franklin Roosevelt administration’s New Deal agencies, Lockefield Garden was
part of a slum clearance and low-rent housing initiative. The location for the
project, an area between the Central Canal and White River, was blighted, and
many of the homes were below even the relatively low living standards of
Depression-era <st1:place w:st="on">Indianapolis</st1:place>.
This area was also almost exclusively African American, with the pulsing heart
of the business and entertainment district on Indiana Avenue forming its
northwestern border.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Some historians have argued that the term “slum clearance”
was a catch phrase for racial prejudice that resulted in demolishing the homes
of generations of African American families. There is probably some merit in
that argument. However, photographs of
the area between the then polluted and vile-smelling <st1:placename w:st="on">Central</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">Canal</st1:placetype> and the also polluted (and probably
also vile-smelling) <st1:place w:st="on">White River</st1:place>, show that a
goodly portion of the homes were mere shacks that appear hardly livable. City
reports of the period confirm that, as late as the 1930s, when most city homes had
indoor plumbing, a large number of the low-income residents in this area were
still using outdoor privies and wells. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The Great Depression, which impoverished even the formerly
wealthy, had been especially difficult on African Americans whose job-types and
earning capacity was so limited in the still openly racist <st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place> of the 1920s and 1930s. The
homes of this neighborhood reflected the suffering of their residents. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The double goal of the PWA housing program—to provide
construction jobs and to improve housing in this blighted area, was a win-win
situation for Indianapolis leaders and, like it or not, the black homeowners
and renters in the area had little if any chance to protest. The city demolished 363 homes on 22 acres
bounded by Indiana Avenue, Blake, North and Locke streets to make room for the
project.</div>
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The local architecture firm of (William Earl) Russ and
(Merritt) Harrison designed the project. They based their plan on PWA Housing
Division models but their attractive and functional design became a model of
its own. Russ and Harrison placed the twenty-four buildings in two
chevron-shaped rows flanking a wide, central courtyard. Landscape architect
Lawrence Vinnedge Sheridan planted the courtyard with a grove of red oak trees
and helped with the siting of the buildings so that each unit had maximum
sunshine.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The yellow-brick buildings had flat-roofs and Art
Deco-inspired limestone details. Interiors were stylish and modern and
expressed the Art Deco style in tiled hallways and geometric stairway
balustrades. According to the <i>Encyclopedia
of Indianapolis</i>, renters could choose from three-room apartments or
four-room “group homes.” Rents ranged from $20.80 to $30.10. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The segregated complex opened in February 1938. Lionel
Artis, a leader in the African American community, was the general manager. With his master’s degree in social science
Artis created a thriving community that became a locus of African American life
in the city. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Among the retail businesses located in the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Lockefield</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Garden</st1:placetype></st1:place>
buildings fronting on <st1:street w:st="on">Indiana
Avenue</st1:street> was one owned by Lionel Artis’s mother. Mrs.
Artis’s clothing shop was the source of gowns for proms at segregated <u>Crispus
Attucks</u>, dresses for evenings on the town in the open-all-night clubs of <st1:street w:st="on">Indiana Avenue</st1:street>, and
fancy stage clothes for many of the local African American singers and stage
performers of the 1940s and 1950s. Flo
Garvin, one of Indianapolis’s well-known and stylish chanteuses (inducted into
the Indianapolis Jazz Hall of Fame a few years ago), remembered buying all her
gowns at Mrs. Artis’s shop in Lockefield Garden. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrmlQrrfVAmbwlvD9h1xU71cH1mdfT1VUUcRAbmMlPSzkc-JVgS87BtKclK0bQOBOGXgLrmP1bsN-Z8-zbp-DiC0-xdwO120KgmUrYeI57tL3P5EkbjNIDvtYN1by_NeYXGVsEBxfyrQw/s1600/lockefieldside.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrmlQrrfVAmbwlvD9h1xU71cH1mdfT1VUUcRAbmMlPSzkc-JVgS87BtKclK0bQOBOGXgLrmP1bsN-Z8-zbp-DiC0-xdwO120KgmUrYeI57tL3P5EkbjNIDvtYN1by_NeYXGVsEBxfyrQw/s1600/lockefieldside.jpg" height="262" width="400" /></a><o:p> </o:p></div>
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In a lemons-to-lemonade scenario, the construction of racially
segregated <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Lockefield</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">Garden</st1:placetype></st1:place> gave many African
Americans a good place to live in a model urban housing project. In a city
where blacks were restricted from living outside of a few enclaves, they found
a comfortable, affordable and attractive home in the midst of an insular and
thriving community.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Eventually fair housing laws, designed to end
discrimination, began to change the nature of that community, and eventually of
Lockefield Garden by the 1960s. By law, subdivision developers who wrote
covenants denying blacks home ownership and local realtors who refused to show
them homes and denied African American realtors membership in their
organization could no longer restrict black homeownership or rentals to a few
inner city neighborhoods. This was a huge factor in the suburbanization of the
city’s middle-class black community.<o:p></o:p></div>
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As the housing market opened to them, African Americans
began to move to newly available suburban areas. Sometimes they planned their
own developments, such as Grandview on the city’s Northwest side, other times
they bravely moved into formerly all-white neighborhoods. By the mid1960s, this movement away from the
city center coupled with the rise of a strong black middle class, whose members
made too much money to meet Lockefield Garden’s new income requirements, began
to empty the attractive apartments of Lockefield Garden.<o:p></o:p></div>
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By the 1980s, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Lockefield</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">Garden</st1:placetype></st1:place> was falling into
disrepair. More and more units were becoming vacant, Lionel Artis was deceased,
and his mother’s swank clothing store was long gone. The pressing needs of
nearby IUPUI and <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Wishard</st1:placename>
<st1:placename w:st="on">Memorial</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Hospital</st1:placetype></st1:place>
for more land brought about a plan to demolish most of the apartment complex
and open the land for development. Although preservationists and other citizens
protested, developers moved forward with that plan and, in 1983, demolished all
but seven of the original 24 buildings. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Today, the remaining seven building and a portion of
Lawrence Sheridan’s courtyard and red oak grove are all that remain of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Lockefield</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Garden</st1:placetype></st1:place> model housing project. The tall, stately trees now line a driveway
to IUPUI and hospital parking lots and to newly constructed apartment buildings
nearby. Although the last remaining buildings of Lockefield Garden are listed
on the National Register of Historic Places, diners steps away at the Lockefield
Place strip mall probably rarely notice the stylish buildings of the once-successful
housing project on the opposite side of Indiana Avenue.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>This article first
appeared in the March 2009 Urban Times. <o:p></o:p></i></div>
A Year at the Riverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17836965128291916468noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2842483528656738212.post-81684664975294099872015-01-25T13:16:00.000-08:002015-01-25T13:18:51.484-08:00Living the Life of Riley: the Story of 52 years of High-Rise Living in Indianapolis<div class="MsoNormal">
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Many current downtown dwellers have lived at least a season
or two in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on"><b>Riley</b></st1:placename><b> <st1:placename w:st="on">Towers</st1:placename></b></st1:place>. Those of us who did so appreciated the great
views and the rare, in <st1:city w:st="on">Indianapolis</st1:city>,
opportunity for real, big-city living. Few of us realized we were in buildings
that are historically significant.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Riley Towers is now past 50 years old, the minimum age at
which the project could become eligible for listing on the National Register of
Historic Places. Its contribution to the city and state’s sparse collection of
significant modern architecture could earn them a place. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The towers are not architectural marvels. They’re not an
exclamation. But they are a modern architecture statement in a city that can’t
claim many others. And they are, to this day, the state’s tallest residential
structures.<o:p></o:p></div>
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They are perhaps even more significant for their association
with the urban renewal plans of <st1:city w:st="on">Indianapolis</st1:city>
business movers and shakers of the 1960s and this city’s unique approach to
funding those plans. Ironically, they are also significant for their failure to
change <st1:city w:st="on">Indianapolis</st1:city>
residents’ vision of what it meant to live in the “City of <st1:city w:st="on">Homes</st1:city>.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<st1:city w:st="on">Chicago</st1:city>
architect Wilmont Vickrey designed the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">James</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Whitcomb</st1:placename>
<st1:placename w:st="on">Riley</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Center</st1:placename></st1:place>
(<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Riley</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Towers</st1:placename></st1:place>) to be this city’s first
high-rise housing. At the time, Vickrey was a partner at Perkins & Will, a
firm later responsible for many of downtown <st1:city w:st="on">Chicago</st1:city>’s skyscrapers. (Today, the firm now
called <b>Perkins + Will</b> has buildings in
the <st1:country-region w:st="on">U.S.</st1:country-region>,
<st1:place w:st="on">Europe</st1:place>, <st1:place w:st="on">Asia</st1:place>,
and the <st1:place w:st="on">Middle East</st1:place>. Vickrey went on to open
his own firm, VOA Associates, Inc. in 1969.) <o:p></o:p></div>
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Construction began on the buildings of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Riley</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Center</st1:placename></st1:place>
in 1962, just two years after the high-rise <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">City-County</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Building</st1:placetype></st1:place>
brought the International Style of Mies van der Rohe to <st1:city w:st="on">Indianapolis</st1:city>. If, as Mies said, “God is in
the details,” then <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Riley</st1:placename>
<st1:placename w:st="on">Center</st1:placename></st1:place>’s architect must
have worshipped a household deity, for the most significant detail of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Riley</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Center</st1:placename></st1:place>
buildings’ exteriors is the vertical brown-brick panels that give them a sort
of high-rise hominess. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Architect Vickrey designed the towers of reinforced concrete
construction with curtain walls that hung upon the framework but bore none of
the building’s weight. According to the <i>Indianapolis News</i>, Vickrey used a construction technique that was new in
the <st1:country-region w:st="on">United States</st1:country-region>
at the time: first building a central concrete utility core and then mounting a
crane on top of it to lift materials into place as workers built the exterior higher
and higher. (A practice that is now common in new construction). Inside the
utility core were stairwells, elevators, and heating and air conditioning
“chases” for piping and ductwork. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Riley</st1:placename>
<st1:placename w:st="on">Center</st1:placename></st1:place> opened in 1963.
Its two 30-story “Crown” towers, a 16-story “<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Twin</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Tower</st1:placetype></st1:place>,”
and a two-story restaurant when completed were merely Phase I of a much larger
plan.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Between the south <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Crown</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">Tower</st1:placetype></st1:place> and the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Twin</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Tower</st1:placetype></st1:place>
the two-story building that now serves as office and gym was originally the restaurant
with a cantilevered second story suspended over a reflecting pool.<o:p></o:p></div>
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During construction, local newspapers noted that Riley
Center’s architect stressed the “human
element” in the buildings’ design and function and made a point of avoiding
“regimentation and institutional appearances” in his work. <o:p></o:p></div>
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According to the Balconies provided “unparalleled opportunity for apartment
dwellers to enjoy outdoor living.” Their unsupported cantilevers mounted on the
building’s glass curtain walls also made a clear, modern statement that was, to
say the least, uncommon in 1960s <st1:city w:st="on">Indianapolis</st1:city>.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The business elites involved in funding <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Riley</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Center</st1:placename></st1:place>
were an <st1:city w:st="on">Indianapolis</st1:city>
“who’s who.” The <i>Indianapolis Star</i> reported that, along with <b>Frank E.
McKinney</b>, chairman of American Fletcher National Bank (which opened a
branch on the first floor of the south tower), sponsors also included <b>Thomas W. Moses</b>, at that time president
of Investors Diversified Services (later chairman of the Indianapolis Water
Company), <b>G. William Raffensperger</b>,
president of the investment firm, Raffensperger, Hughes and Co., <b>C. Harvey Bradley</b>, chairman of the
executive committee of P. R. Mallory and Co., and <b>Harry T. Ice</b>, partner of the law firm of Ross, McCord, Ice and
Miller (now Ice Miller), among others.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Riley</st1:placename>
<st1:placename w:st="on">Center</st1:placename></st1:place>’s developers purchased
20 acres of land at North and <st1:state w:st="on">Alabama</st1:state>
streets from the Indianapolis Redevelopment Commission. Their plan: to develop
at least ten, 30-story towers. These buildings would add 1,800 new apartments
to the city center, where new housing construction had come to a standstill. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Not since the construction of <b>Lockefield Gardens</b> in the 1930s had <st1:city w:st="on">Indianapolis</st1:city> seen such an ambitious
residential building project. And like the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Lockefield</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Gardens</st1:placetype></st1:place>
project, the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Riley</st1:placename>
<st1:placename w:st="on">Center</st1:placename></st1:place> started with a
“slum” clearance of homes and businesses already on the land.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The developers proudly used local monies rather than federal
urban redevelopment funds for <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Riley</st1:placename>
<st1:placename w:st="on">Center</st1:placename></st1:place>. This set <st1:city w:st="on">Indianapolis</st1:city>’s urban
renewal plan apart from those elsewhere in the <st1:country-region w:st="on">U.S.</st1:country-region> But, even though the architect
and project director claimed in an <i>Indianapolis
News</i> article that local funding “expedited the project by at least five
years,” it probably also eventually caused it to fall far short of its
potential. <o:p></o:p></div>
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To fund their initial four-building phase in the project
they hoped would eventually see as many as ten of the 30-story “crown towers” and
several 16-story “twin towers,” the businessmen sponsors got a $9 million
mortgage and sold 25 percent of their Riley Center stock to the <b>Alcoa Company</b> to help raise the rest of
the $40 million required. In return, the architect used Alcoa aluminum extensively
in the exterior window walls, entry doors, and stair railings.</div>
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On the inside, according to the development's promotional materials, the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Riley</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Center</st1:placename></st1:place>
promised gracious living. Apartments were generous in size and there were
seventeen different floor plans, ranging from studios for “bachelors and
bachelor girls” to terrace-garden apartments, to penthouses. Closets large
enough for “a Beau Brummel” and piped-in Muzak were other selling points,
though the latter may have been a dubious one.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Only “reputable and responsible citizens” would reside in
the apartments.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Riley</st1:placename>
<st1:placename w:st="on">Center</st1:placename></st1:place> also had
ground-floor commercial establishments, beauty and barber shops, and amenities that
included to-your-door dry cleaning pick-up and drop-off. The fine-dining
restaurant in the center building was managed by <b>Max Comisar</b> (of the long-established <b>King Cole</b> restaurant located for many years on <st1:street w:st="on">Meridian Street</st1:street>). <o:p></o:p></div>
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Even with all these attractive (not counting the Muzak)
amenities, the project developers knew they had to be creative to sell the idea
of renting apartments to Indianapolis residents, who were among the most likely
in the nation to embrace home ownership. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A 12-page insert in the <st1:date day="19" month="5" w:st="on" year="1963">May 19, 1963</st1:date>, <i>Indianapolis Star</i> painted <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Riley</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Center</st1:placename></st1:place>’s
new picture of the American dream. In language straight out of an Ayn Rand
novel, the insert assured readers that within the “ultramodern surging towers,
the dweller in the center has command. All the city is stretched out below. In
the quiet apartness of your apartment is privacy to read a book, whip up a new
Danish dish, compose a sonata, type another chapter of that novel, have
conversation with an interesting new friend, produce, create.” But most importantly--Rent.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Despite those inspiring words, the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Riley</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Center</st1:placename></st1:place>
failed to entice enough residents to fill even the Phase I towers. Low
occupancy precluded further construction, and eventually the city had to sell the
unused “slum clearance” land that had been intended for the additional
apartment towers. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Although the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Riley</st1:placename>
<st1:placename w:st="on">Center</st1:placename></st1:place> did eventually
reach full occupancy, that didn’t occur until the 1990s, almost 30 years after
their construction. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Sadly, the project’s lack of immediate success continues to
limit the skyline of <st1:city w:st="on">Indianapolis</st1:city>
to this day. Worries about high-rise housing have kept buildings low, and resulted
in the city favoring new construction that is traditional and suburban-looking,
even on prime residential real estate downtown. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Although a few skyscrapers have made their vertical marks,
aside from low-income housing at <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on"><b>Barton</b></st1:placename><b> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Towers</st1:placetype></b></st1:place>
on <st1:street w:st="on">Massachusetts Avenue</st1:street>
and <b>Lugar Towers</b> on <st1:street w:st="on">Alabama Street</st1:street>,
high-rise residential development has been noticeably absent from the “city of
homes” since the construction of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Riley</st1:placename>
<st1:placename w:st="on">Center</st1:placename></st1:place>. Even today, on
the valuable Market Square Arena land at the center of downtown, submitted plans
for new residential buildings don’t rise as high as the soon-to-be 45-year-old <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Riley</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Towers</st1:placename></st1:place>.
The two 30-story towers were, as late as 2007, the tallest residential
buildings in the state of Indiana.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Riley</st1:placename>
<st1:placename w:st="on">Center</st1:placename></st1:place> did not reach hoped-for
potential, but its tall towers have been a temporary and sometimes a long-term
home for large numbers of downtown dwellers.
Though not always beloved in this city, the buildings remain a
significant landmark of <st1:city w:st="on">Indianapolis</st1:city>’s
redevelopment, and of its insular business world that kept funding local rather
than federal. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Riley Center how now passed the 50-year minimum age to be
considered for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. It just might deserve a spot there.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
This article appeared originally in 2007 in <i>Urban Times. </i>It was revised with current dates for this post. </div>
A Year at the Riverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17836965128291916468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2842483528656738212.post-28529066436007238832014-05-11T06:42:00.000-07:002014-05-12T17:13:29.952-07:00Real Silk Stockings: Stockings for the World from a Corner of Indianapolis<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7tRUsZHWXLUkHIgKaA9Q72b5UVscwJUtWc3uiQpY9uQEMXUiQhFWBDzTij4SPeHwxK7TavVvMtc8ZttQ5Ucgzi-xLxTUEDEmwdlmGVyxmxiWCHrVdnNtuX55AH_mLpT0Ts73BJ5EXgnQ/s1600/realsilk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7tRUsZHWXLUkHIgKaA9Q72b5UVscwJUtWc3uiQpY9uQEMXUiQhFWBDzTij4SPeHwxK7TavVvMtc8ZttQ5Ucgzi-xLxTUEDEmwdlmGVyxmxiWCHrVdnNtuX55AH_mLpT0Ts73BJ5EXgnQ/s1600/realsilk.jpg" height="120" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Real Silk Buildings are now condominium lofts. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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In the 1920s and 1930s, Real Silk Hosiery Company was a
multinational firm sheathing the legs of ladies across most of the developed
world in its famous stockings. From an ever-expanding mill complex in downtown
Indianapolis they sold literally millions of real silk (hence the name) and
lesser quality stockings through a vast International network of salesmen. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The Real Silk Company collection of the Indiana Historical
Society contains the records of a firm that began its Indianapolis life in the
early 1920s. Brothers, J. A. and L. L. Goodman, had previously operated the
Goodman Hosiery Mills in Burlington, North Carolina where they had produced
cotton and “mercerized seamless hosiery,” according to a report from the North
Carolina Department of Labor since at least as early as 1918. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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In 1921 the brothers, through their attorney, began to
purchase property in the area around Noble (now College) and Walnut streets in
downtown Indianapolis. In this era before zoning prohibited mixing heavy
industry into the city’s residential areas, a potential mill location just off
bustling Massachusetts Avenue, with nearby railroad access, was a great choice
for these two young entrepreneurs hoping to expand their hosiery empire. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The Baist map shows Liberty Street lined with small frame
residences in 1916. Records show that the
Goodmans bought lots from several individuals, eventually demolishing the
houses to make room for their new plant. By 1927, the Real Silk Hosiery Company
occupied most of the block on the west side of College between North St. and
Mass Ave. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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By this time Real Silk dominated the upscale hosiery market
in the U. S. The company was also practicing a form of silk diplomacy,
spreading American-made hosiery across the developed world. Folder after folder of contracts signed in
the 1920s fill the boxes of the historical society’s collection. Contracts between salesmen from France,
Argentina, Italy, Mexico, Cuba, Uruguay, the Philippines, Puerto Rico and
Jamaica, among others, required that the orders were paid for upfront,
sometimes with loans that the company made to the salesman at interest. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The contracts forbade independent salesmen from selling
wholesale to retail establishments. They may have had exclusive sales of the
product in their country, but each pair of stockings had to be sold
door-to-door-- at a price prescribed by the company. And these were not cheap
stockings. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Prices in the contract for Jesus Matas Barrie and Juan
Garcia Vidal, the Mexico salesmen in 1925, ranged from $17.50 per dozen for “All
silk full fashioned service weight hose” to $4.50 per dozen for “Ladies’ Lisle
[cotton].” And the “representative” had to pay shipping charges. And every year
after the fourth year of being contracted with Real Silk, the salesman had to
increase his orders by 10 percent. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Real Silk boomed through the 1920s. In addition to foreign salesmen, the company
had a raft of domestic salespersons in the thousands. In Chicago, for instance, they sold, and
perhaps manufactured, hosiery through the Trojan Hosiery Mills.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Then the Great Depression hit and hit hard. Stocking sales
didn’t have a leg to stand on in these years when work was hard to find and
bills were hard to meet. And the tough times expanded around the globe. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Real Silk couldn’t sell enough stockings to pay the bills.
According to the “Encyclopedia of Indianapolis” a bank committee took control
of the company in the 1930s. Then, in
1932, Gustave Efroymson, formerly the president of H. P. Wasson & Co., was
elected president of Real Silk. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Two years after Efroymson took the helm employees at Real
Silk went out on strike. Violence marked the negotiations (or lack thereof),
resulting ultimately in the arrest of 16 strikers and intervention of the
National Labor Relations Board to arbitrate the strike. Although the strike eventually resolved and
personnel went back to work, the company never regained its prominence in the
hosiery market. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
World War II brought boom times back to the hosiery firm.
Silk was requisitioned for the armed forces but Real Silk, like many manufacturing
firms, converted to war time manufacturing. The firm produced parachutes used
in dropping bombs, as well as socks for both men and women serving in the armed
forces. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Shortly after the war ended, Gustave Efroymson died in 1946.
And a brief increase in profits deflated in the 1950s. <o:p></o:p></div>
Robert Efroymson took
over the firm after his father’s death and by 1957 had closed all the
manufacturing locations, including the huge complex at Park and College avenues
in downtown Indianapolis. <br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Real Silk continued door-to-door sales of stockings and
other items for years after the manufacturing arm of the business closed. In
the meantime Robert Efroymson sold the manufacturing equipment and registered
the company as an investment firm. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In 1961 what was left of the hosiery business became
Realsilk, Inc. The manufacturing buildings on Park Avenue were converted into a
printing center which for several years housed a number of different printing
businesses. Beginning in 1986, the brick
buildings, with their casement windows that once illuminated machines weaving
silk stockings, were converted into apartments and condominiums. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
********Originally published in May 2014 "Urban Times Newspaper"</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
A Year at the Riverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17836965128291916468noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2842483528656738212.post-33085166745191677772013-12-22T17:11:00.001-08:002013-12-22T17:20:35.546-08:00My Christmas Wishes for the City of Indianapolis<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjikIUCeLj0UqLafsh_PCzDKYGQ1WSogDbRctH2pMXiheOZ14CC1Lc0uRIdOaGqYSUiKfMhXvdXkv7eK0kXK9cGHuY2Jk1JuP2y7WuLB58eLsO3nB56jvTHfJbRp-HFnkoga71gTubM034/s1600/photo.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjikIUCeLj0UqLafsh_PCzDKYGQ1WSogDbRctH2pMXiheOZ14CC1Lc0uRIdOaGqYSUiKfMhXvdXkv7eK0kXK9cGHuY2Jk1JuP2y7WuLB58eLsO3nB56jvTHfJbRp-HFnkoga71gTubM034/s1600/photo.JPG" height="252" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I was pretty excited when Urban Times publisher, Bill
Brooks, asked me to give him my Christmas Wish List. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I thought keeping my
list to only two items, that vintage Mercedes 250 SL I’ve been wanting for a
while now and a bottle of Chanel #5 (because how can you drive around in your
vintage Mercedes convertible without Chanel #5?) showed my restraint nicely.
And really, I planned to appreciate the boss’s kind gift-giving gesture almost
as much as I would that supple leather interior.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Then he said: uh no, not a wish list for yourself, one for
the City. What do you hope and wish for the City for Christmas? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">So ok, I can’t exactly drive around in it, but now that you
mention it, I have had my eye on a few things that I’d like for my city,
specifically downtown, too. And in the altruistic spirit of the season (which
doesn’t smell nearly as nice as Chanel #5), here’s my wish list for you,
Indianapolis. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">1.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri;">A pile of money as big as the one you used to
demolish houses last year (reportedly $13 million), devoted this time to
stabilizing the ones that are left, creating a Land Bank that works and will
move them into the hands of buyers, and maybe even giving a cash incentive to
folks willing to come into the neighborhoods, take on a house that’s abandoned,
fix it up and live there. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">2.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri;">No more flat-roofed, tiny eaved, multiuse
commercial/housing developments. Enough. The idea is a good one, but surely
there is more than one way to design a building for multiple purposes. Look at
the Argyle building on Mass Ave. It’s attractive, multi-use and still standing
more than 100 years after construction. None of this current crop of blah
sameness will last until 2113. That may be a good thing, but building not to
last in a style that’s now become ubiquitous is not a lofty goal. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">3.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Let’s eliminate some of our one-way streets
dedicated to the massive outmigration of workers each day. Add back the
opposite travel lanes. Maybe if we slow them down by making their commute a
little less easy, they will take a minute to look around and see how much
better life could be if they just moved into the city. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">4.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri;">On my list five years ago and still on it today:
a GREAT building. Somewhere in our downtown area. How about a GREAT building,
even a controversial one? Hello? Anyone?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">5.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri;">More restaurants that serve breakfast with
gluten-free toast (Ok, that one is kinda specifically oriented at me, but I
think the City will be a better place if I can eat breakfast out more often).
And in that same theme, a microbrewery serving up some fine gluten-free beer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">6.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri;">That Urban Transit stuff. Yeah, let’s get that
going.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">7.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri;">And when we get that light rail, or improved bus
system or old time interurban happening, let’s recreate those bustling nodes of
commercial development around them. And then we can use the money I asked for
in Wish List #1 to help stabilize and/or help new homeowners renovate the homes
in the neighborhoods around these nodes, bringing those educated, young
professionals we are always talking about, back to our inner city. Win, win,
win, win! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">8.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Super Bowl Spirit 2014! Let’s take all that
energy and the monies we devoted to making the City Super-Bowl ready and put it
into making the City an awesome place for those of us who live here, which
will, in turn, make an awesome place for others to want to move to. That was
cool that we knitted scarves for Super Bowl volunteers; how about we do that
for our homeless population, for our police officers? And again, back to Wish
List #1 (sensing a theme, Santa?), how about we plow some dollars into adversting
showing where in the City there are abandoned homes that need TLC and new
residents and how great it would be to become a new resident by taking on one
of these project houses and turning it back into a home to live in in our
awesome city? Heck, in the long run this might make the City more money than
that fleeting Super Bowl. We’re talking tax-paying residents, property tax
dollars, job holders, neighbors.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">9.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri;">More grocery stores, please.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">10.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
finally, for some real big-city charm and the occasional cheap purse: street
vendors. Need flowers? Pick them up at the corner. Lose your wallet? You can
buy one downtown, corner of Washington and Illinois. No matter what we say
about being a world-class city, I’ll believe we’re a big city when I can find a
“317” T-shirt vendor on the sidewalk on Meridian Street. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt 0.5in;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">That’s my wish list this year.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Before I sign off, I want to say that you’ve done a pretty
good job with the City in some unexpected ways over the last couple of years,
Santa. The Cultural Trail, well it’s really something, proving that we really
will get out and move if you give us a place to do it, and adding much-needed
green space that winds throughout downtown. The boom in good restaurants,
that’s been great, too. And I’ve always been a fan of a vintage cocktail, so
thanks for bringing that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Food trucks,
yeah. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You’ve been busy and I appreciate
it. Now it’s time to get the elves working again.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Happy Holidays, everyone!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>May your lists be short and your wishes fully realized. I guess I’ll be
waiting until next year for that sweet little Mercedes. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Originally published in <em>Urban Times</em>, December 2013 issue. </span></span></div>
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A Year at the Riverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17836965128291916468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2842483528656738212.post-52869898873721330682013-09-29T16:12:00.000-07:002013-09-30T16:32:18.298-07:00Marion County, Indiana, Courthouse-- Uncovered Plans<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXcUrSqe7DHNVYFoEG6W_osvxHwDlxdy1MFHTS8F5m1IEAy4nf8mxMQP3EvaMjvHXm8WuqTKd_jCWveUf80eHJ8XAigZ0JYOIW9BmzaLcC7-oOR9do91ycVVs1Q5E8V4X8p8IiKFo8Ceg/s1600/photoof+rendering.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXcUrSqe7DHNVYFoEG6W_osvxHwDlxdy1MFHTS8F5m1IEAy4nf8mxMQP3EvaMjvHXm8WuqTKd_jCWveUf80eHJ8XAigZ0JYOIW9BmzaLcC7-oOR9do91ycVVs1Q5E8V4X8p8IiKFo8Ceg/s1600/photoof+rendering.jpg" height="474" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Throughout the history of the preservation movement there
have been moments that kicked preservationists in the seat of their pants.
Sometimes these moments, like the demolition of Penn Station in New York City,
give the movement meaning and impetus. Sometimes they simply cause pain and
make preservationists wish they’d done something. One of those moments occurred
in the early 1960s in Indianapolis when the Marion County Courthouse was
demolished.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The majestic courthouse is the one of our saddest losses out
of the countless numbers our city has experienced over the years. It was razed
in the 1960s and many of us don’t remember seeing it standing. We know it only
from photographs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But most who care
about architecture, preservation or history understand that this bit of lost
Indianapolis is a truly sad loss. We mourn it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">So when I got an email a few months ago from the state
archivist, Alan January, who said he thought I might want to see some new
information the archives had discovered about the courthouse. I got the note because I’d written the
Encyclopedia of Indianapolis entries about the city buildings and the
courthouse architect, Isaac Hodgson, and when January had looked up one or both
entries he’d found my name and thought maybe I’d be interested. Heck yeah, I was
interested.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The first Marion County Courthouse was completed in 1825 and
originally doubled as the state capitol building when the legislature moved
here that year. Fifty years later the city was becoming cosmopolitan and it was
time to replace the old brick and frame courthouse.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The county hired Isaac M. Hodgson to build a new
courthouse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hodgson, who was born in
1826 in Belfast, Ireland, had attended the Royal Academy. At age 16, he entered
the office of Sir Charles Lanyon, architect of the Palm House at the Belfast
Botanical Gardens and of Killyleagh Castle in Ireland. In 1848, Hodgson
immigrated to New York and then to Louisville, bringing his architectural
training with him. In Louisville he got practical experience, working as
assistant architect on several city buildings. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In the 1850s Hodgson relocated to Indianapolis. In this
still young city, he was one of only six professional architects. After a
decade or so of working here, he landed the commission to design the buildings
at the United States Arsenal in 1863 (now Arsenal Technical High School). He
also designed several of the original buildings for the Female Reformatory in
1870 and he designed several residences.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In 1876 his Marion County Courthouse was befittingly the
most elaborate courthouse in the state. It was one of several courthouses he
designed in the Midwest. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq8EK0Emr6iFV5fx74muSjbZYl5X0NXEI6RG2RjRgxK9T2S2jxKfO1ueQcKUXyeBqmyBPctgg7cUpxSpPxnBQVlEZOOjVW6YSWlOwl1_09ftm8-xulmD3TB6nwXDpia1RYfbjs8sGg0Is/s1600/IMG_3796.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq8EK0Emr6iFV5fx74muSjbZYl5X0NXEI6RG2RjRgxK9T2S2jxKfO1ueQcKUXyeBqmyBPctgg7cUpxSpPxnBQVlEZOOjVW6YSWlOwl1_09ftm8-xulmD3TB6nwXDpia1RYfbjs8sGg0Is/s1600/IMG_3796.JPG" height="355" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Marion County Courthouse was completed July 5, 1876. The
building fronted Washington Street and covered the block between Alabama and
Delaware, standing about where the plaza is for the current City/County
Building. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This elaborate courthouse building cost $1,422,000, to build,
almost twice the original estimate. It was ornate Second Empire style with a
mansard roof, towers on each end and a clock tower in the center. The building
was five stories tall with the clock tower rising several stories higher. The
façade was Indiana limestone with red granite.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When it was completed, a local newspaper reported that it had a
“bewildering profusion of colors,” along with interior frescoes and intricate
trim. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This second courthouse remained in use for 85 years. When
Charles Bookwalter took office in 1906 one of his priorities was to construct a
new city hall. On September 30, 1908, the Neoclassical City Hall opened. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Probably from that moment, the old elaborate
courthouse began to feel dated in comparison to the subtle beauty of the new
City Hall (which we now call “Old City Hall”).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">By the 1950s an increasing number of city and county offices
were renting space outside the city hall and the courthouse. Interest in a
single new building where both city and county office could be consolidated
rose. In 1962 Allied Architects completed the current high-rise International
Style City/County Building. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For a short time the
extra fancy courthouse remained beside this young upstart, but not for long.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Within a year, the old courthouse was gone, forever
antagonizing future preservationists who, in hindsight, cry over its loss.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">So, what can be news about a courthouse built in 1876?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What had the archives turned up that excited
Alan January enough to contact me?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Turns out they have been processing 19<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> Century
Indiana Supreme Court documents. Among them is a lawsuit that Isaac Hodgson
brought against the Board of Commissioners of Marion County.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In Case No. 10,079, filed in 1884, Hodgson sued the
commissioners, stating that he had not been paid the balance due him for his
design work as the architect and superintendent of construction of the courthouse.
A lower court had denied his suit, so he appealed it to the Supreme Court. His
attorneys claimed the lower court had not properly recorded affidavits
supporting his case.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately for
Hodgson, the court decided against his claim and upheld the lower court’s
decision. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimKrBoo5nyH5g_Ewllc01kTHZAPkAHWQa4Dw6hakdUY_iucOLJ7bHebdbIjvItwOQVH0HvtjxpxEWV_nObZUAT2zsFisyNvj2RuYfKxRX5FgkO7Y6RpwRVDc9Qw2fxsbW8lawat9yt7dM/s1600/IMG_3800.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimKrBoo5nyH5g_Ewllc01kTHZAPkAHWQa4Dw6hakdUY_iucOLJ7bHebdbIjvItwOQVH0HvtjxpxEWV_nObZUAT2zsFisyNvj2RuYfKxRX5FgkO7Y6RpwRVDc9Qw2fxsbW8lawat9yt7dM/s1600/IMG_3800.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZnZLWVV0cpTeQygMkKZH1IueMuOsZK0_3d8sX7v1EolIifn51OFpWC4PVPJ2_cGR6yV12cRKscEo6bbkXuij3cvEQnE-x52Ul8NrwaWyot4h588UHKuDDIgTzuWIsUtGs0ngEaYo92v0/s1600/IMG_3801.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZnZLWVV0cpTeQygMkKZH1IueMuOsZK0_3d8sX7v1EolIifn51OFpWC4PVPJ2_cGR6yV12cRKscEo6bbkXuij3cvEQnE-x52Ul8NrwaWyot4h588UHKuDDIgTzuWIsUtGs0ngEaYo92v0/s1600/IMG_3801.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The case doesn’t offer much for the historical records.
However, the treasure included with the record were the drawings submitted as
evidence. Folded into squares for more than 125 years in the massive bunch of
records passed along to the archives, were Hodgson’s original drawings and an
original rendering of his design.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Conservation technician, Elizabeth Hague, lovingly unfolded
those drawings, working on them for more than three months to flatten and clean
them so that they could be viewed. And two weeks ago I got to see them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some of the sheets were too dirty to get very
clean, the creases and stains still showed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>These had apparently been working drawings, perhaps carried around the
construction site by Hodgson or his builder. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">On several sheets of the shiny fabricky paper, in Isaac
Hodgson’s hand, were details, about the building we wish still stood. “Good
wooden finish to all doors, windows, etc. Tiles to halls and wood flooring to
the rooms…Slate to the roof, rough plate glass to the roof over central hall
and polished plate glass to the windows…” was written on the top of the first
story plan. The ink a little smudged at the top from architect Hodgson’s hand
as he wrote the text. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyyiv_SHc4U_gzvzmuqGmqNCVZenWHlQpFKe0Js4eHSaWMDRYAj2z4r8NrqIjDO9QdkE341HztNvWwpL81VYlPyjadd1vRhOQadalwsshcGazkk-ezFA6yNftYb-DU7nluXQRSrRl6Zgs/s1600/IMG_3795.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyyiv_SHc4U_gzvzmuqGmqNCVZenWHlQpFKe0Js4eHSaWMDRYAj2z4r8NrqIjDO9QdkE341HztNvWwpL81VYlPyjadd1vRhOQadalwsshcGazkk-ezFA6yNftYb-DU7nluXQRSrRl6Zgs/s1600/IMG_3795.JPG" height="417" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Page after page of drawings, including a very Escheresque detail
of all the staircases and their fancy balustrade lights. That drawing is
Elizabeth Hague’s favorite. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For me, it
may have been the roof plan, showing the “mansarde” on one side and the “naked”
roof beams on the other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But somehow, it
was that ink smudge that really made me understand that the man I’d researched
and written about, whose accomplishments in my city more than a century ago,
whose most famous building I lament losing even though I never saw it, that man
was flesh and blood. He drew and wrote and misspelled “height” as
“hight”, and somehow probably got cheated out of some of the money he was
promised for designing that building. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Aside from the few original arsenal buildings at what is now
Arsenal High School, I’m not aware of any other Isaac Hodgson buildings that are
still standing in Indianapolis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But he
was important in our city and not just for his buildings that we tore
down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1894, he and eight other
architects chartered the Indiana Chapter of the American Institute of
Architects, an organization that still exists. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">And now you can see his drawings, and his handwriting, and
that little smudge made by his fist, at the Indiana State Archives. Treasures.
Pirate booty. Discovered by archivists. Go see them. Tell Alan January that
Connie sent you.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">[This article first appeared in <em>Urban Times, </em>October 2013.</span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
A Year at the Riverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17836965128291916468noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2842483528656738212.post-32030230177114157952013-08-27T05:58:00.000-07:002014-01-05T11:09:09.446-08:00Henry Ulen. Small town boy. Worldwide impact.<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><strong>Henry Ulen, the small town boy with a worldwide impact.</strong> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">You may not have heard of Henry C. Ulen,
who briefly had a public works business in Indianapolis. But the people of
Greece, Poland and Bolivia have. </span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span> </div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqUxBQ2m7-ZZfAvoE92py6o8i0z2aW4SA88VUSti8kxTXRONjJnF4MixoJDHV97Ciov3nEc-aLBJET-caBG5zjJrbkIUNS93pRoBJ2FpIct9nmBNBnyR1s9N_PZrq7TIh6V-12gpCVMnU/s1600/118+Ulen+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqUxBQ2m7-ZZfAvoE92py6o8i0z2aW4SA88VUSti8kxTXRONjJnF4MixoJDHV97Ciov3nEc-aLBJET-caBG5zjJrbkIUNS93pRoBJ2FpIct9nmBNBnyR1s9N_PZrq7TIh6V-12gpCVMnU/s1600/118+Ulen+2.JPG" height="242" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Henry Ulen's home in Ulen, Indiana</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Ulen was born in Boone County, Indiana,
in 1871. His father was a storekeeper in Lebanon. Young Henry exhibited a
disdain for standard education, a strong independence and a flair for making
his wishes to visit far flung places come true. He became known in Lebanon as a
boy who skipped school and jumped trains. His flair for adventure was part of
his early mystic; a part that didn’t particularly impress the mothers of
Lebanon.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Despite a general concern about his
character, a concern shared in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Thorntown
Argus</i> by his new in-laws, Henry Ulen convinced Mary Dutch that he had
potential as a mate and the couple wed at her parents’ home in Thorntown,
Indiana, in 1890; their marriage would last more than 60 years, until her
death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Luckily for Mary, by 1894 Henry’s
potential was being realized. That year, the kid who never completed high school
passed the bar exam and began practicing law.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">In 1899 Ulen moved to Indianapolis and
organized the American Light & Water Company to install municipal
utilities. In 1908 he moved the company to Chicago. By 1912 he was a Chicago
banker and so well known the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New York
Times</i> wrote an article about this outrageous youngster who became a
successful banker and businessman.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">In 1916, Ulen Contracting Co. undertook
a contract to construct modern water systems for several cities in Uruguay,
South America. Ulen found a unique way to bid on the project that would lead
the way to an international career in public works construction. The project
was funded with $5 million in bonds and set up so that Ulen purchased
securities in the project. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">When it became clear that transporting
the necessary machinery to the project areas would be nearly impossible
overland, Ulen purchased an American sailing schooner, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Alice M. Colburn,</i> to transport the machinery to South America. Nothing
stopped can-do Henry Ulen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">In 1921 Ulen Contracting signed an
agreement with the Bolivian government to construct a railroad, including
stations and terminals through the country. The project had an expected
completion date in 1927 and a cost of $10 million dollars. With his feet wet in
this large project, in 1922 Ulen organized Ulen and Co. in New York City with
authorized capital of $5 million. He retained ownership of Ulen Contracting Co.
and was president of both companies. He was also vice president of the
Shandaken Tunnel Corp of New York. Ulen Contracting Corp. was in the process of
constructing the Shandaken Tunnel, the longest tunnel in the world at the time,
through the Catskill Mountains, to provide drinking water to New York City. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">In
1922, a member of the Fortnightly Club in Lebanon, Indiana, decided to contact
Henry Ulen in New York because Ulen had expressed interest in building a golf
club in past discussions when he was in his hometown. Ulen agreed to build a
$50,000 clubhouse once the site for the course was determined. He also agreed
to become a member of the club’s first board of directors. In 1923, Henry Ulen
and his wife bought a house on East Washington Street in Lebanon and moved, at
least part time, back to their home state.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Meanwhile,
Henry Ulen’s companies were gaining work across the globe. Negotiations often
required Henry and Mary Ulen to travel to far parts of the world to secure
contracts and check on Ulen and Co.’s progress, which given the nature of the
work and the political unrest in some parts of the world, did not always
progress smoothly. In 1924, Ulen began work on water and sewer projects in ten
Polish cities. Arthur W.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>DuBois
signed on as General Manager of Ulen and Co.’s work in Poland.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a pattern that would become the norm for
many upper-level employees, Dubois went to Poland to set up
housekeeping and begin work and then his family sailed to Europe – in style--
to meet him. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">DuBois's
son, Bill, recalled in a book about his father written decades later that
their ship was the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">President Roosevelt</i>.
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>“Our
cabin was huge and mother had a big steamer trunk,” he remembered. In Poland,
the family had a maid, a gardener and a groom for their horses. Ulen took care
of his important employees. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">A
chaotic political situation led to fighting in the streets of several Polish
cities, including the one where Ulen had its office. Bill DuBois personal
secretary, who had traveled with his family from America, was shot and killed
by a sniper’s bullet in the Ulen offices. DuBois hid out in his office for three
days until things settled down.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Setbacks
and tragedies did not slow the steady flow or Ulen and Co. projects. Nor did
they long hinder progress on the country club and golf course in Lebanon.
Although the Country Club building construction cost twice what Henry Ulen had
pledged toward it, he covered the inflated cost and the club opened in 1924 --
the same year that Bill DuBois was building waterworks across Poland. The
country club hosted U. S. Senator Samuel Ralston, who was at the time
favored as the next presidential candidate, at an early dinner with Henry Ulen as the toastmaster
of the event.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">In
1928 Ulen & Co. landed a huge project in Persia to construct 800 miles of
railroad from the capital of Teheran to the Persian Gulf. Bill DuBois became
General Manager for the project. Ulen ultimately encountered
problems with the Reza Shah authoritarian government and had to leave the
project, seeking, but not receiving, help from the United States State
Department to recover the money owed the team for the construction of the
southern leg of the railroad. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">By
this time Henry Ulen had decided to move his company’s headquarters to the tiny
town of Lebanon from New York City. The new country club may not have been
enough incentive to make his top executives and board of directors happy about
the move, so Henry Ulen sweetened the deal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He began to build them a town full of high-end homes right next to the
country club to help with persuasion. By 1928 several of his executives and a
handful of Lebanon’s upper-crust business community had constructed a number of
homes on land that Ulen had purchased. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">By 1929, the year that the Town of Ulen
incorporated, Ulen Co. had completed contracts totaling one billion
dollars in the 30 years that Henry Ulen had been in business. Principal
stockholders in the firm were American International Corporation, organized in
1915; Field, Globe and Company (a banking concern run by Marshall Field (son
of the Marshall Field retail magnate)); Stone and Webster, one of the largest
engineering contracting companies in the world; and Ulen Contracting Corp. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Ulen and Co. completed the
construction of the all marble Marathon Dam in Athens, Greece, and its men were
working on railroads and water and sewer facilities in Bogota, Columbia in 1929.
The firm acted as agents of the municipality involved on a fee basis to
find funding through bonds and securities, which Ulen invested in. Ulen
neighbor, Charles Jones, remarked that in his later years Henry Ulen had
leather satchels full of “millions of dollars” in the bonds that ultimately
failed on some of these project, but at the time Ulen was pioneering a method
of financing that would become a standard for public projects across the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">In 1931 <span style="color: black;">an Indiana
magazine reported that </span>Ulen and Co. was the “largest engineering and
contracting corporation in the world” with millions of dollars in contracts
each year. Ulen’s work had taken him around the globe 30 or more times an
article in an Indiana magazine noted, which must surely have seemed exotic and extravagant to Hoosiers
caught up in the midst of the Great Depression. At the time the article was
written Ulen and Co. was constructing a 90-mile canal for irrigation and
hydropower in Texas.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">As
the financial times remained hard, Ulen personally took on the mission of
keeping Ulen Country Club in the black. In 1933 when loss of membership and
finances forced the club to dissolve and reorganize, Ulen provided cash
infusion by underwriting newly issued shares of stock in the club, almost
single-handedly meeting the club’s expenses through 1938. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">When
the U. S. entered World War II, Henry Ulen was hoping for an opportunity for
rebuilding and the potential for millions of dollars in new contracts that
could rise out of the destruction at war’s end. But by the time the war ended,
Ulen was no longer a major player in construction projects. An article in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Indianapolis Star</i> referred to Henry
Ulen’s work in the past tense. Ulen and Co. had “financed, planned and
constructed big projects…No job <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">was</i>
too big.” The company was still in business, but by 1950, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Indianapolis News</i> noted that Ulen “no
longer undertakes construction work.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The
demise of Ulen and Co., probably as a merger into a larger firm, took place
in what seems to be a historical vacuum. No record of the end of the company
has been found, although there is some indication that the American
International Corporation, which had partnered with Ulen beginning at least as
early as 1922, purchased the company. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The
end of Henry C. Ulen is, on the other hand, well documented. Newspapers far and
wide published Ulen’s obituary in 1963, including the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Nevada State Journal, Montana Standard, </i>and the Kittaning,
Pennsylvania, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Simpson’s Leader-Times</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Henry C. Ulen passed from the world on May 16,
1963. He was 92. His legacy was worldwide, including water and sewer works,
dams, and railroads from South America to Iran, numerous philanthropic gifts,
and the still swanky town, country club and golf course named for him. He is
buried next to his wife, Mary, in Oak Hill Cemetery, Lebanon, Indiana.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: x-small;"> </span></o:p></div>
A Year at the Riverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17836965128291916468noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2842483528656738212.post-14189993549401237582012-07-25T06:33:00.000-07:002016-11-30T12:48:47.708-08:00Avriel Shull -- finally the beginnings of a database<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
I've been
tracking Avriel Shull for many years now. I am finally getting my files
organized. Here is the beginning of a database of Avriel Shull designed
buildings. I still have many to add from my own collection of notes,
but thought it would be fun to let you all have a gander at what I'm
doing. I wrote the National Register of Historic Places nomination for
Thornhurst Historic District, where there are 21 additional
Avriel-designed homes, and I have records on a dozen others still to
add. If you know of an Avriel design that I don't have here, please
drop me a note at connie@cresourcesinc with an address and a photo if
you have one. If not, I'll be happy to hop over and snap one. Also, I
know Avriel worked in states other than Indiana, I'd love to get photos
of those buildings. Check back, I'll be updating this page as time
allows. All materials copyright C. Resources unless otherwise cited.</div>
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<br />A Year at the Riverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17836965128291916468noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2842483528656738212.post-60259220228470519312012-04-10T07:46:00.008-07:002012-04-10T08:38:13.823-07:00Blog Interrupted<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ31pYWOv0Zce9qWZgojBjVs8hH5gjd4huVt3BdClk-UiDDrjlelNqqMtH7huWzvoF4NwMH58zrATVeLp2x_A_REQytQyJa0D6h1gTL3Y54-yJAZIDM9n8a3nEqG36dCETdxU-bU-PSqo/s1600/IN_Adams+County_ChristianandAnnaEglyHouse_0002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="313" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ31pYWOv0Zce9qWZgojBjVs8hH5gjd4huVt3BdClk-UiDDrjlelNqqMtH7huWzvoF4NwMH58zrATVeLp2x_A_REQytQyJa0D6h1gTL3Y54-yJAZIDM9n8a3nEqG36dCETdxU-bU-PSqo/s320/IN_Adams+County_ChristianandAnnaEglyHouse_0002.jpg" width="320" /></a>This poor blog has taken a back seat to dozens of other more pressing issues lately. It's been months since I last posted. But I've been busy working on a few things. Here's a window into what I've been doing lately: <br />
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A nomination to the National Register of Historic Places for the Christian Egly House in Berne, Indiana. A beauty of a home with nice Free Classic features that is close to original inside and out. Christian and Anna Egly moved into their house, which the local newspaper called a "mansion on the hill" in 1899. Christian had just opened the Berne Hay & Grain Co. The business thrived, but somehow Christian's finances didn't. In 1914, he lost the house where his family of 5 had lived for more than a decade. It sold for $3,370 at a Sheriff's sale held on the steps of the county courthouse in Decatur, Indiana, to Jacob Neuhauser. Neuhauser lived in the house until his death in 1942.<br />
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<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;">I've also been doing research in mostly online archival materials for the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art. I won't spoil their surprise, but there may be an architectural exhibit in their future. </span><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;">As always, I've been writing my regular "History 301" column in the <i>Urban Times</i> newspaper. Most recently about how the City of Indianapolis historically used demolition as a precursor to progress. And how that's not the case in the current plan to demolish 2,000 buildings, most of which are still in private hands and therefore won't be redeveloped easily. One of the illustrations for how this city, in the past, demolished only when there was a plan for progress is the story of the deconstruction of the old Cyclorama building, which once housed a mural of a Civil War battle, to make way for the construction of the Traction Terminal and Train Shed. Designed by Daniel Burnham of the 1893 Chicago World's Exposition fame, and built to house all of the interurban and streetcar lines running into and out of the city under one huge free span structure, the trade of old for new made great sense and a good civic improvement then. Not so much these days when we're demolishing old houses to make empty lots. </span><span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;">And I'm beginning research on Leslie Ayers, an Indianapolis architect who created the most amazing architectural renderings for the Indianapolis firm of Pierre and Wright, before branching out into his own architectural firm. I'm just at the beginning of this research but I'm looking forward to learning and seeing more of Mr. Ayers.</span> <span style="font-size: small;">His winning entry for the 1941 Indianapolis Home Show was featured in the Indianapolis Star article below.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span> </div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhMDUaztvKhjYDiqNotBiaNB7VsZgm3lOMuEAxGMXzRd0UJFRe3IhtHAvuYsYrVHBvAliCyHDk7aK01Z5FF11Wc8wGyBI7Uc21SDfrfZR0rYxUbsDez4v0tyoH19MyqILGqJN__41v5kg/s1600/1941homeshowstar4201940clippedout.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhMDUaztvKhjYDiqNotBiaNB7VsZgm3lOMuEAxGMXzRd0UJFRe3IhtHAvuYsYrVHBvAliCyHDk7aK01Z5FF11Wc8wGyBI7Uc21SDfrfZR0rYxUbsDez4v0tyoH19MyqILGqJN__41v5kg/s320/1941homeshowstar4201940clippedout.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">There have been a few other things, like managing a Facebook page to raise awareness of the current plan for wholesale demolitions in Indianapolis. I think the name properly captures my sentiments about this plan: "Stop the Demolitions, Indianapolis." <a href="https://www.facebook.com/StoptheDemolitionsIndianapolis">https://www.facebook.com/StoptheDemolitionsIndianapolis</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">And I'm trying to be active in finding alternatives to demolition, not just complaining. In fact, I'm about to leap into a very active role in making a bricks and clapboard alternative to demolition---partnering to buy and rehab a house that was on the demolition list. I think she's got great potential. No way this house should be demolished. I'll try to keep you posed with pics as we make progress. </span><br />
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</tbody></table>A Year at the Riverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17836965128291916468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2842483528656738212.post-33523228592534688882011-12-30T07:48:00.000-08:002011-12-31T08:17:12.409-08:00Futuramic!Ahead of the New Year, let's take a look back. To 1948. I found these Oldsmobile ads in some old <i>Vogue</i> magazines. The 1948 cutting-edge design of the cars doesn't hold up so well, but take a look at the architecture! The "Futuramic" homes still look modern and new even to world weary almost-2012 eyes.<br />
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April 1948 <i>Vogue</i> featured a bright yellow Futuramic Oldsmobile and a wowser of a modern home by Chiarelli and Kirk. Their partnership started in 1944. This home was a real construction. The text states that the house was (is it still?) built in Port Angeles, Washington. Some more research indicates it must be the Dr. Schueler house built in that city in 1947.<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The only photos I can find of the Dr. Schueler House are interiors. <a href="http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt1199r2zg/">http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt1199r2zg/</a>. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The May 15 issue brought the design with a delightfully curvaceous Olds Club Sedan and a delightfully angular house by Marcel Breuer! Look at that house! That's in 1948. That huge car fits nicely under the cantilever at the rear and it's all view out the front through those floor-to-ceiling windows! Breuer's Bauhaus ideals are shining here. Does anyone recognize this Breuer? It appears to be the Gilbert Tomkins House built in 1945 in Hewlett Harbor, NY. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Here's a photograph of the Tomkins house from <a href="http://trianglemodernisthouses.com/breuer.htm">http://trianglemodernisthouses.com/breuer.htm</a> . Same house, yes? </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">In June <i>Vogue</i> gave us a cherry red Oldsmobile and a cheer-worthy piece of architecture by Vincent Kling. It's a beach house, but there's no location noted. Kling was a Philadelphia architect. Anyone have a clue as to where this house might be? This one is so futuristic I can't believe it was constructed. But I hope it was and I hope one of you readers can tell us where. Here's Miss June 1948 and isn't she a beaut?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">1948 was a very good year for good design. In 2012, let's celebrate good design from all eras. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Cheers to you in the Futuramic New Year from C. Resources and INArchitecture! </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div>A Year at the Riverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17836965128291916468noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2842483528656738212.post-73709775081564179982011-10-19T05:54:00.001-07:002012-02-23T18:05:50.734-08:00Demolition ain't Development.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCBIIUL7WxFAOOEslrE0oHZ91nxQF22bI-g27TaEf0kOP7lx1H4RA43fa1zih94lEClahSESD1C19slWnTz2rw7eUwpxJrI1aN_rkWRaWuCaD0Ix-s6U_KWN6seClKejFEYOs6oGlVbZk/s1600/demohouses+006.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCBIIUL7WxFAOOEslrE0oHZ91nxQF22bI-g27TaEf0kOP7lx1H4RA43fa1zih94lEClahSESD1C19slWnTz2rw7eUwpxJrI1aN_rkWRaWuCaD0Ix-s6U_KWN6seClKejFEYOs6oGlVbZk/s320/demohouses+006.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>We can all agree that Indianapolis has an abandoned home problem. The City has identified 4,500 buildings that are abandoned. Some burned out, abandoned homes in Indianapolis would probably never be rehabbed or repurposed as anything other than housing for squatters. Most of us are ok with those houses being demolished. But the City's new plan to demolish 1,200 buildings by the end of 2011 and take down an additional 800 -- a total 2,000 --- by the end of 2012 has preservationists and neighborhood advocates rightfully concerned, even outraged.<br />
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Looking for a quick fix with a sudden influx of money from the water utility sale, but without any redevelopment plans in line, the City/County Councillors and the Mayor allocated $15,000,000 to demolition and $0 to any other options that might save some of these homes and fill them with new neighbors.<br />
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If you have a gut feeling this isn't a good plan, you're right. Here are just a few of the salient reasons why.<br />
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<div class="MsoNormal">1. All Smart Growth and New Urbanism tenets say that urban density is the best way to achieve a sustainable city. Empty lots between houses is counter to urban density. Empty lots lower walkability scores, don’t make the highest use of urban infrastructure and don’t use the embedded energy of the existing buildings. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIxzK25O1EUDdeOkfObiG4o7cRLrqw12Jbirv-TCb-1LQ4qgsuGgwE8JIZsw4aqv7aJ9cJUSYK_GLfIhOOQPuXyjv_qzbFWK1K-0jqaA2uzSrblh9F2Dliu1wgLTo20JjR7CLlrnElYlc/s1600/IMG_2159.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIxzK25O1EUDdeOkfObiG4o7cRLrqw12Jbirv-TCb-1LQ4qgsuGgwE8JIZsw4aqv7aJ9cJUSYK_GLfIhOOQPuXyjv_qzbFWK1K-0jqaA2uzSrblh9F2Dliu1wgLTo20JjR7CLlrnElYlc/s320/IMG_2159.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">2. While many houses may need to be demolished, clearly many on this list are not unsafe and many are saveable. The buildings were not surveyed by structural engineers. Health and Hospital, the agency that makes the "unsafe" call, does not do interior investigations. The decision of which buildings to add to the list was based on a wide variety of criteria, which may or may not include a hole in the roof, a hole in the foundation, tall grass, and/or police runs. But, many structural issues are repairable and demolishing a house should never be based on police runs. The bad tenants will just move to another house. We can't demolish every house they live in until they eventually move out of the county. Or at least, we shouldn't.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">3. Right now, the City owns only a tiny percentage of the buildings to be demolished. Which means that any future development would be reliant on the absentee landlords being found and willing to sell the lots to developers. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">4. This plan is a quick fix that will result in empty untended lots still in the possession of landlords who have already failed to maintain them. Health & Hospital will be putting thousands (or more) of extra dollars into maintaining these 2,000 lots after the demolitions. More money down the drain.</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">5. According to Reggie Walton, Assistant Administrator of the Abandoned Housing Initiative, the great majority of these properties are “severely delinquent” in property taxes. This means the City <i>could</i> take the properties and make them available for purchase. But the City has no intent to take the properties, which means little to no potential for development. [See Point 4]</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">6. Few if any of these properties have been offered up for sale. At least some might sell if the City would take the property and put them on tax sales or find other ways to get them into the hands of new owner/occupants. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7rDiK8umS7dARcSBwSuJSrpu-5vx71awTB_JKTdHVrSUkkRVvkbUDTGLQiPQAVk-OrRrNJGZshQsYae_O2DwWKuDxlp4dqS5eIlqTX_4A1gff0HMJ40cxtMpA1kuEHiiYEZwUcmegZcY/s1600/demohouses+009.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7rDiK8umS7dARcSBwSuJSrpu-5vx71awTB_JKTdHVrSUkkRVvkbUDTGLQiPQAVk-OrRrNJGZshQsYae_O2DwWKuDxlp4dqS5eIlqTX_4A1gff0HMJ40cxtMpA1kuEHiiYEZwUcmegZcY/s320/demohouses+009.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">7. Once the demolition has occurred the lien for demolition goes onto the property. Unless the original landlord is willing to pay the demolition cost, or the City is willing to forgive the fees, any new owner would have to pay off the cost of the demolition lien, as well as buy the property, adding even more cost to the properties and making their eventual reuse even more unlikely.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">8. The bond was written to allocate all the money for demolition. It could and should be rewritten to allocate some for uses that are positive, such as rehab grants, stabilization programs, urban homesteader grants, and $1 house programs (such as the one introduced by Republican mayor William Hudnut). </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIK0-FUiUKKsv-D9-S60j9b2EfE5EnkF2gNSaydRhaLFayBME7fUfuALLAgtgLTI2xSY8FZ9sZGO7TOI-pMvbMfz3SZWkbYL7dNPFgrgYdb59QgSJylXkV-oEUjOo3Sl8VKZZiJJ0kAHI/s1600/demohouses+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIK0-FUiUKKsv-D9-S60j9b2EfE5EnkF2gNSaydRhaLFayBME7fUfuALLAgtgLTI2xSY8FZ9sZGO7TOI-pMvbMfz3SZWkbYL7dNPFgrgYdb59QgSJylXkV-oEUjOo3Sl8VKZZiJJ0kAHI/s320/demohouses+001.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">9. In most cases, even neighbors who complain about the abandoned homes would rather see them filled with new homeowners than see them demolished. Alternative programs could use the same monies now designated for demolition to bring urban homesteaders into these buildings. <br />
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If you agree that this wholesale demolition is a bad idea, please join the Facebook page, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/StoptheDemolitionsIndianapolis">https://www.facebook.com/StoptheDemolitionsIndianapolis</a>.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>A Year at the Riverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17836965128291916468noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2842483528656738212.post-22161428742230848482011-09-30T18:22:00.000-07:002011-09-30T18:39:08.385-07:00Now for something completely different: Gene Fowlkes -- Indianapolis Jazz History<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi14JT-52g_cbFHTMlbvqZ0L44R1E93R7VGGCaTnHwS6FhzLHeuDyDB_7yJcIDBOSx9n1S1I775areM_dOvXsiI6GmsgU7kmfabPTILWxKJHxn1evVLnuj0VtGxrwmtsH2Ia2Ii7dlB6sk/s1600/Eugenefowlkes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi14JT-52g_cbFHTMlbvqZ0L44R1E93R7VGGCaTnHwS6FhzLHeuDyDB_7yJcIDBOSx9n1S1I775areM_dOvXsiI6GmsgU7kmfabPTILWxKJHxn1evVLnuj0VtGxrwmtsH2Ia2Ii7dlB6sk/s320/Eugenefowlkes.jpg" width="277" /></a></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">EUGENE (GENE) FOWLKES</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"> Eugene (Gene) Fowlkes was born in 1930. He grew up in an African American neighborhood on the Eastside of Indianapolis where he went to public schools 56, 37, and 26 before attending the all-black Crispus Attucks High School. Gene is a tall, still-handsome, lanky man with long arms, legs and fingers. He laughs a lot.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">As a child, Gene was intrigued by his oldest brother’s trombone, but his arms were too short to play the instrument. “That could be the reason that later on I just decided to get one [of my own]. I went to Sack’s pawn shop that was on Indiana Avenue . . . bought a trombone for either $50 or $75.” That was in 1947.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"> Gene’s first musical influences were the well-known trombonist, J. J. Johnson, and Johnson’s wife Vivian. It was Vivian who introduced Fowlkes to Johnson’s recordings and the stories of their lives in New York City. When Gene began to play his pawn shop trombone he practiced by playing along to J.J.’s recordings loaned to him by Vivian. He played those 78s so much he wore deep grooves in them. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">Playing trombone turned Gene’s life around. “I don’t guess I was pretty much no different than the 17, 16, 17 year-old kids now, just want to hang out. Then I heard about the Hampton family. Now that was the turning point of my whole life.” How’d you hear about them? “I went over to McArthur’s Conservatory of Music (on Indiana Avenue) that’s how I met the Hamptons.”</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"> Gene paid for his lessons at McArthur’s with his G.I. Bill, a benefit he received at an early age. At the end of World War II, Gene enlisted, faking his age. When his mother sent the Commander Gene’s birth certificate showing he was only 16, he was sent home. But his benefits kicked in anyway affording Gene a chance to train at the premier music school in Indianapolis. Soon he started hanging out with Buddy Montgomery at Wes Montgomery’s house on Cornell Street in Indianapolis. “So between the Hampton family and Wes Montgomery, Buddy, and Monk . . . I just fell in love with jazz,” he says. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"> Because the trombone was not an essential instrument in most jazz groups, Fowlkes rarely had a steady job in a house band, but he stayed relatively busy playing in quintets or larger groups whenever he could land a gig. His work ethic matured when he started at the Cotton Club in Cincinnati. There he played in a group that also included left-handed trombone player Slide Hampton (of the Indianapolis Hampton family). “I remember one morning in particular . . . I heard him practicing and I was so inspired. Now, here’s a guy that played better than me, now he’s up practicing, I’m laying in the sack. So I got up, shook my head and put my clothes on and went down and I started practicing.”</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"> When Gene returned from his second stint in the armed forces--this time he was drafted--he got a job at the Turf Club at 16<sup>th</sup> and Lafayette Road. Drummer Sonny Johnson formed a group with tenor saxophonist Pookie Johnson, Monk Montgomery, on the just-introduced electric Fender bass, Gene Fowlkes on trombone, and Carroll DeCamp on piano. It was a “wonderful, wonderful gig.” </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">Unfortunately for Gene, Sonny Johnson eventually decided to change the group. He "fired" Carroll DeCamp and replaced him with Buddy Montgomery, “fired” Gene and replaced him with guitar phenomenon, Wes Montgomery. The new Johnson-Montgomery Quintet became <i>the</i> hot jazz band in Indianapolis. "For people old enough to remember what that group was, you know, and how they sounded, man that was really good,” Gene says years later, despite his own bad luck in situation and an intervening period of admitted sour grapes. The change in band also made the two outcasts, DeCamp and Fowlkes great friends with a shared disappointment, both in losing their jobs and knowing how much better the group was after they were kicked out. “We talked about them like dogs,” Gene says with a laugh. But even the outcasts knew there was something very special in the chemistry of the Johnson-Montgomery quartet. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"> After losing that job at the Turf Club, Fowlkes went on the road with Jimmy Coe, Earl Van Riper, Mingo Jones, Earl Fox Walker and Bill Boyd in Indianapolis band leader Jimmy Coe’s band. They were the opening act for an all-black group with a rock-and-roll hit. Gene no longer remembers the name of that band nor their song. But he’ll never forget the dismal segregation of the South. He saw first-hand separate water fountains, separate lines at ice cream stands, and when they played in Dallas, Texas, “There was one big rope tied right down the middle of the room. The blacks on one side and the whites on the other side. You couldn’t cross the line.” </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"> In 1957 Gene fell in “LUV” [his pronunciation and emphasis] and passed up the opportunity to go on the road with the Lionel Hampton group. Instead he got married and took a factory job at Western Electric. He didn’t give up music but about that time he decided to switch from the trombone to the bass, figuring he could find more work on the weekends as a bass player. Because both instruments are in the bass clef he didn’t have a problem reading the bass part; says he had to slow his mind down for the bass, because the trombone “is faster and quicker.” He learned the new instrument from other bass players in town at the time, several of whom went on to make very big names in much bigger cities: Leroy Vinnegar, Larry Ridley, Monk Montgomery, Philip (Flip) Stewart. A bass player from Detroit, Bill Yancy, who was playing at George’s Orchid Bar on Indiana Avenue, taught Gene the correct hand positions, which made him a much more controlled player. He was no longer “just grabbin’” at his new instrument.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"> As a bass player Fowlkes worked with Wes Montgomery whenever Monk was out of town, and went on the road with the famous Earl “Fatha” Hines. Though a testament to the skill he had developed, that road trip also turned Gene away from his musical career. Earning $400 a week in the late 1970s, he found it nearly impossible to live in Los Angeles and make enough money to pay his mortgage in Indianapolis. He says he barely managed to pay his dog food bills to fellow musician Claude Sifferlein, who was dogsitting for the recently divorced Fowlkes. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"> Tired of hiding from bill collectors, when Gene returned to Indianapolis he took a full-time job with the CETA program in the purchasing department at the City/County Building. While there he saw a posting for a position as a correctional officer. It paid $12 an hour, so he decided that would be his next job. On his first day of work at the Indiana Youth Center in Plainfield, he “saw so many of my old buddies. Boy it was like old home week.” When he found out he could be a parole officer if he earned 15 hours of college credit, he completed an associate’s degree, and began to look for a new position. Never one to believe that racial discrimination held him back, Fowlkes plainly states that it was age discrimination, not his race, which prevented him from finding a position as a parole officer. But he continued to work in the corrections field and eventually retired at age 62 from his job at the men’s work release center. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"> During these years of working the midnight shift in corrections, Gene had to give up playing gigs. Although he missed it for a long time, he doesn’t anymore. Now, he loves to stay home with his dog, Sheba and grow flowers. He plays music, keeps the remote control “duct-taped” to his wrist so he can stay up-to-the-minute on sports, and works on his house. At age 70 believes Gene Fowlkes says he’s had one wonderful life.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Connie J. Zeigler</div><div class="MsoNormal">3/10/01</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing">With David Andrichik, owner of the Chatterbox Jazz Club, filming them, I completed 16 oral histories with jazz musicians inducted into the Indianapolis Jazz Hall of Fame between 1998 and 2002. Gene Fowlkes was one of my favorite subjects. He was funny and modest and irreverent. I wrote this short biography a couple of years after our interview. The taped interviews and their transcripts belong to the Indianapolis Jazz Foundation.</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">Eugene Fowlkes died on February 25, 2005.</div>A Year at the Riverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17836965128291916468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2842483528656738212.post-40018316712877939352011-07-20T07:01:00.000-07:002011-07-20T07:10:30.544-07:00Gunnison Homes -- The New MiracleI've written about Gunnison Homes before in this blog. See: <a href="http://cresourcesinc.blogspot.com/2010/07/former-gunnison-factory-new-albany.html">http://cresourcesinc.blogspot.com/2010/07/former-gunnison-factory-new-albany.html</a>. Running across a newspaper article while I was doing research gives me an excuse to post up a bit more information. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRz4hqB8rjnnpz5jm2x3TLqpiNWNUBgjm-XWUJR0pEGpURslnl5Gu6YY-3NVtVnDwtE_xFxKQqWZ2pK4H3A-Rsajg_NAY4oR7Py9aKAtLadztxfXfC6fMKZY1p9Eh-s1UNGO2vObsANMM/s1600/IMG_1966.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRz4hqB8rjnnpz5jm2x3TLqpiNWNUBgjm-XWUJR0pEGpURslnl5Gu6YY-3NVtVnDwtE_xFxKQqWZ2pK4H3A-Rsajg_NAY4oR7Py9aKAtLadztxfXfC6fMKZY1p9Eh-s1UNGO2vObsANMM/s400/IMG_1966.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Gunnison Magic Homes was the first really successful pre-fab housing firm in the United States. By 1940, this <i>Indianapolis Star</i> article claims that it was the "nation's largest home builder." In the pre-World War II era that may have been true. It's safe to say that the company sold thousands of homes over the course of its history. <br />
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From his factory, which still stands in New Albany, Indiana, Foster Gunnison produced pre-fab homes built with insulated plywood panels in an assembly-line system. <i>Forbes</i> called him the "Henry Ford of housing." Raw materials arrived at the front door, the walls, ceiling and floors were factory finished, doors hung and "windows installed, washed and screened" as the panels moved along the conveyor belts and out the rear door onto trucks headed all across the nation.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbZON-nW7skXsHWgcYBO11pebE3EHW231RyoLSlO-lGX8tXyCJVwzL31nFDCXoYsjUv8jigigbLzCGqB6r5M6XFywzOA3bYn94PnQb42u5zW_YZ_-S7yYmiwhBW49JOjFRkBH3QbPy4g0/s1600/IMG_1965.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbZON-nW7skXsHWgcYBO11pebE3EHW231RyoLSlO-lGX8tXyCJVwzL31nFDCXoYsjUv8jigigbLzCGqB6r5M6XFywzOA3bYn94PnQb42u5zW_YZ_-S7yYmiwhBW49JOjFRkBH3QbPy4g0/s640/IMG_1965.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>This September 29, 1940, article introduced a new line of Gunnison Homes, the Miracle Home. Demonstration homes were already built by this time in Indianapolis, South Bend and Jeffersonville, Indiana. Unlike the Deluxe Home, which came in nine standard sizes ranging from four to seven rooms and retailing from $4,000 to $8,500, these new Miracle Homes were all four rooms. They could be installed with or without a basement and were sold on installment plans, approved for FHA loans, for $360 down and $25.60 monthly payments, including insurance and property taxes.<br />
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Indianapolis builder, Robert L. Mason was the local rep for the Miracle Homes. It's hard to know how many of these little Miracles were built in the city, but the demonstration home shown in the picture at the bottom of the article and located in the 3500 block of North Keystone Avenue, still stands as you can see in this google maps pic. I wonder if its owners know the history of their house? <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhve_-FZzllJmwT6zWFLxhyHq-xa8mC7USP4Z18NAehGjWal8LXhJ5gOR4GP8utKfQrA_Fr1Jem8q39FNnrwHUKdDz-UwSD91NRgYCc8L7yDF3PYoI9VewNB2eiNebk0rG4iWPn1L9KKoM/s1600/gunnisononkeystone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhve_-FZzllJmwT6zWFLxhyHq-xa8mC7USP4Z18NAehGjWal8LXhJ5gOR4GP8utKfQrA_Fr1Jem8q39FNnrwHUKdDz-UwSD91NRgYCc8L7yDF3PYoI9VewNB2eiNebk0rG4iWPn1L9KKoM/s320/gunnisononkeystone.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>A Year at the Riverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17836965128291916468noreply@blogger.com33tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2842483528656738212.post-66398991684929846822011-06-25T09:32:00.000-07:002011-06-26T19:44:31.535-07:00First Christian Church by Eliel Saarinen Opens May 31, 1942. Here are the goods.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhun1IaKZR7wjhnOVcibNF8PuM-OIPjMclKc4-TOop5CIa1Z-7gQyGR-Xxyvy1SSmhiRMuf2X7obU79R96tAoXWKBiZ2iBiOcfzBGX0wfF3-XAbbud5f7HVdfMqRtQ8oN8UzhoZEScD7AU/s1600/cropped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhun1IaKZR7wjhnOVcibNF8PuM-OIPjMclKc4-TOop5CIa1Z-7gQyGR-Xxyvy1SSmhiRMuf2X7obU79R96tAoXWKBiZ2iBiOcfzBGX0wfF3-XAbbud5f7HVdfMqRtQ8oN8UzhoZEScD7AU/s200/cropped.jpg" width="187" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>I Stumbled upon two articles about the opening of Eliel Saarinen's First Christian Church in Columbus, Indiana (at that time called Tabernacle Church of Christ), as I was doing research in the "Indianapolis Star".<br />
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Nearly everyone interested in modern architecture knows that Finnish-born Eliel Saarinen, chief architect, head of the architecture department and first president of Cranbrook Academy in Michigan, received the commission from William G. Irwin and his sister, Mrs. Hugh Thomas Miller, to design the small town's first piece of modern architecture. This church ingrained a love of modern architecture in Miller's son, J. Irwin Miller, created a bond between J. Irwin and Eero Saarinen, and set Columbus on a path of modernism that continues to astound even today.<br />
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This first illustration jumped off the screen at me as the microfilm advanced. The tall campanile tower of First Christian was unmistakable and had me reversing instantly for a closer look. <span style="font-size: xx-small;"> [click on images to enlarge] </span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9Crku4ZROM-u6zKA7gLLs1k2l7_T1D0ISLAJYyMabv-esT1y_pJMx0At30QwMjpRZLEb8yUQUdL5AHOgfddKaaKW7w37rLMdONmJRoo4N_ge1U0k4rPp7Hb48nUEIPd8UYGt9vLv4k8Y/s1600/blogfirstxianchurchcolumbus581942Star.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9Crku4ZROM-u6zKA7gLLs1k2l7_T1D0ISLAJYyMabv-esT1y_pJMx0At30QwMjpRZLEb8yUQUdL5AHOgfddKaaKW7w37rLMdONmJRoo4N_ge1U0k4rPp7Hb48nUEIPd8UYGt9vLv4k8Y/s400/blogfirstxianchurchcolumbus581942Star.jpg" width="251" /></a></div><br />
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I learned a wonderful bit of not-so-trivial trivia when I read the caption under the drawing. Indianapolis's Pierre & Wright were the associate architects for First Christian. When Eliel Saarinen's name is on a project of course local firms drop by the wayside, but Edward Pierre & George Wright, whose work includes Perry (later renamed Bush) Stadium <a href="http://bit.ly/j5xloi">http://bit.ly/j5xloi</a>, the competition-winning design for the Indiana State Library building, and numerous others, were lights of modernism in Indianapolis. They would have been a logical choice to manage this project for Saarinen.<br />
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If you haven't taken the Columbus Architecture tour, which I highly recommend, then you may not know that the church was designed around a reflecting pool as mentioned in this article. I wish I'd seen it when the pool still existed but in the 1950s it became a concrete courtyard due to leaking issues and damage caused by the reflection of the sun onto the tower--you get the essence of what was here, but it must have been an even more lovely spot when it was filled with water creating a mirrored image of the tower.<br />
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I like how the author talks of the church's "symmetrical balance rather than conventional symmetrical plan". In person, the asymmetry strikes the casual observer but I think this writer is correct, this luminous church is an artful balancing act. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkiuDkR49mbBR2MggfxvUiWUinIljwxvcR7k5U0diQDe5EJz6xWij4XpVLBWSR1tjE5hCy_OnMNldsKyjOseDfqtv7jpVR3tmKjlDBSf59PJNky-LSwJfQPdOtA1yqZGwumJt85COALjs/s1600/eeronxian.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkiuDkR49mbBR2MggfxvUiWUinIljwxvcR7k5U0diQDe5EJz6xWij4XpVLBWSR1tjE5hCy_OnMNldsKyjOseDfqtv7jpVR3tmKjlDBSf59PJNky-LSwJfQPdOtA1yqZGwumJt85COALjs/s200/eeronxian.JPG" width="150" /></a></div>The second article makes note of the working partnership between Eliel and his son, Eero Saarinen, on the church. Eero, who would go on to design Columbus's North Christian Church and the Miller Home in Columbus, designed interior furnishings at North Christian for his father. The church was a family affair: Eliel's wife Loja Saarinen, designed the tapestry, which was woven at Cranbrook. <br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">[Both Eero Saarinen's North Christian Church--at left, and Eliel Saarinen's First Christian Church are National Historic Landmarks]</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9O06JlV3VdRIHhXd67gdUSm0QFp7GBt3sV1sOVD634EFiLsm0mYxuR2ZbuNQQjuwntoVoY6HROJrltABa5CIG1MvNDmISvQyFhiQDaYlzoZ9P26DZMvr5KMLtcvcPHpI6Ggf83A1yZdQ/s1600/blog1stxiancolumbus531194230rightside.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9O06JlV3VdRIHhXd67gdUSm0QFp7GBt3sV1sOVD634EFiLsm0mYxuR2ZbuNQQjuwntoVoY6HROJrltABa5CIG1MvNDmISvQyFhiQDaYlzoZ9P26DZMvr5KMLtcvcPHpI6Ggf83A1yZdQ/s400/blog1stxiancolumbus531194230rightside.jpg" width="263" /></a></div>Most of the text from the second article was about the dedicatory service for the church. It does mention the price tag: $650,000 in 1942, prompting the insupportable claim that it was "one of the most expensive churches of modern design in the world." <br />
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Certainly for those with an eye for modernism, First Christian is one of the most beautiful churches of modern design in the world. <a href="http://www.nps.gov/nhl/designations/samples/in/1stchris.pdf"></a><br />
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Today, you can view the church through a Henry Moore sculpture, Large Arch, which sits just across the street. It was dedicated in 1971, five years after Eero Saarinen designed a rather large arch of his own in St. Louis. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPcQPooR2VHN65gKvba-2yJR_s_QymzT1mpPibYU-NMd8PbSY4XDx_Hy-jB7e81ALu48zipCdN-HUs6C0ARJ1kxJUrwxHAGJRf5EncFSdiNv6CrzR1nUIWeqXy7n4BL6jp8x7noPWu7Gw/s1600/Eliel+Saarinen%2527s+First+Christian+Church+behind+a+sculpture+by+Henry+Moore.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPcQPooR2VHN65gKvba-2yJR_s_QymzT1mpPibYU-NMd8PbSY4XDx_Hy-jB7e81ALu48zipCdN-HUs6C0ARJ1kxJUrwxHAGJRf5EncFSdiNv6CrzR1nUIWeqXy7n4BL6jp8x7noPWu7Gw/s1600/Eliel+Saarinen%2527s+First+Christian+Church+behind+a+sculpture+by+Henry+Moore.jpg" /></a></div><br />
You can read the successful National Historic Landmark nomination and the statement of significance for First Christian Church online: <a href="http://www.nps.gov/nhl/designations/samples/in/1stchris.pdf">http://www.nps.gov/nhl/designations/samples/in/1stchris.pdf</a><br />
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Then, drive, fly or bus yourself to Columbus, Indiana, and see it in brick and mortar. It's worth the trip.A Year at the Riverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17836965128291916468noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2842483528656738212.post-6718640355284681622011-05-13T11:09:00.000-07:002012-07-02T12:12:09.895-07:00Good Reason for Pride<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsROihWLBwIAgmBa9-ltxWRuBO8-ERIPQohPUBoQ4zcPtI8xDtWjaDLxfjlURXbDerV_dH8b_CafYiuMbZO8tct1Dyuf70y3BAKdzb2IMh9OV64wiwrzihjx7EGM_twS7uRkaKl5WvOOQ/s1600/modernbuildingsindpls1191958starcropped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a>This week I came across a 1958 newspaper article bragging about the bright future of modern architecture in Indianapolis. Yes, that's right, in the 1950s there was good reason to be optimistic that Indianapolis might become one of the nation's showcases of modernism.<br />
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Two office buildings and a beautiful limestone-skinned J. C. Penney store by Skidmore Owings and Merrill were already completed or under construction; a glass curtain-wall City-County tower with limestone wings would open in 1961; a new State Office building by the Chicago firm, Graham, Anderson, Probst and White was scheduled to break ground, a complex of high rise apartment buildings by Perkins + Will, and a handful of other great projects were in the works or recently completed in the city.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikrRU2dwdoKpcAG5bsTYo46gg3IAEx6wONN_QVimuFWiyNWfpnlpDZynvk5tECxNRXKOQWxi5OmSn2461vpcGG-6BCaVVGFLsWRTOcOT8pxQWQ8bOP0Y7uoBFj1MbIZE6ywg_4Uv0lcoA/s1600/modernbuildingsindpls1191958star0001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br />
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Here's how we felt about our new buildings in 1958. [double-click on images to enlarge].<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY6TanLZCgI99dUdWDGbySYaqSMbBTiNwlZdMw_GXYqRADTkqOV1U_cBzPiV_D87mbJf1wCGxJY7A4TcQBDA83QnZr5COseBV9Qt6il4riIA5AnaDt3WI3s2JdKphkxJPLQw8tTwGSMDA/s1600/modernbuildingsindpls1191958star0001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY6TanLZCgI99dUdWDGbySYaqSMbBTiNwlZdMw_GXYqRADTkqOV1U_cBzPiV_D87mbJf1wCGxJY7A4TcQBDA83QnZr5COseBV9Qt6il4riIA5AnaDt3WI3s2JdKphkxJPLQw8tTwGSMDA/s640/modernbuildingsindpls1191958star0001.jpg" width="502" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRJD9HFeopq4ErmGCivjmQIFxDZh_lnPnMRHiYQcgYOQP2mQLYnstEK6vgveLDQBEXpW-0sPv2pusYkaq4gNr_r9asSMzHRgexiWBgqEbV9Kto99TzJwChs7Hr2oHIbw2ctStX_xxPQs8/s1600/modernbuildingsindpls1191958starcropped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRJD9HFeopq4ErmGCivjmQIFxDZh_lnPnMRHiYQcgYOQP2mQLYnstEK6vgveLDQBEXpW-0sPv2pusYkaq4gNr_r9asSMzHRgexiWBgqEbV9Kto99TzJwChs7Hr2oHIbw2ctStX_xxPQs8/s400/modernbuildingsindpls1191958starcropped.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Sadly, by the early 1960s the excitement over urban renewal, and apparently the federal dollars that helped pay for it, were drying up, leaving Indianapolis with a few good buildings but not much architectural future to count on. I'm not a fan of disrespecting Indianapolis, which is a trendy thing to do among the people who live here, but I'd like a good reason, like a few interestingly modern buildings, to make me and others feel really prideful in the city's architectural future again. Maybe that will happen.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRJD9HFeopq4ErmGCivjmQIFxDZh_lnPnMRHiYQcgYOQP2mQLYnstEK6vgveLDQBEXpW-0sPv2pusYkaq4gNr_r9asSMzHRgexiWBgqEbV9Kto99TzJwChs7Hr2oHIbw2ctStX_xxPQs8/s1600/modernbuildingsindpls1191958starcropped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; color: black; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> </a></div>A Year at the Riverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17836965128291916468noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2842483528656738212.post-87297983878777742432011-04-18T08:35:00.000-07:002011-04-20T07:14:43.194-07:00Some History with our Culture?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi0UTrRzuzYiDe4HycacSDdG18jBswHgxOAHdJ05CPbPANcfiUiyZSCG-5VLQaBTPurJiNoZueRDmtuno_aIgI5IrW97ftNIdUJXUu-oFrDQ_7czTf6_rMlSGurbh58u_Bh6xDGntdUN4/s1600/IMG00051-20110413-1412.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi0UTrRzuzYiDe4HycacSDdG18jBswHgxOAHdJ05CPbPANcfiUiyZSCG-5VLQaBTPurJiNoZueRDmtuno_aIgI5IrW97ftNIdUJXUu-oFrDQ_7czTf6_rMlSGurbh58u_Bh6xDGntdUN4/s400/IMG00051-20110413-1412.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
[An interurban ran right along Virginia Avenue. The track has been severed in the demolition of the street for the Cultural Trail]<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>[The cut for the Virginia Avenue leg of the Cultural Trail -- click images to enlarge]<br />
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A few years back Indianapolis began construction of a "Cultural Trail." This trail links the "Cultural Districts" that the city's marketers thought up a few years before that. The Cultural Districts include Mass Ave, Broad Ripple, Fountain Square, the Wholesale District, and the Canal District, and probably some other place I've forgotten. Some of these places definitely have pizzazz and all have some version of culture. Anyplace where humans hang out probably has culture. But a big part of capital-C "Culture," the stuff that defines and is defined by specific places, people and events, is history. Arguably a shared history is the biggest factor in creating culture, in fact. <br />
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I like the Cultural Trail for bike riding. It's wide and smooth and safe. And I love the natural landscaping used in swales beside the trail. But I have a big gripe with the Cultural Trail's impact. In the process of creating a wide, paved sidewalk with a lot of lights and way too many bollards and signs, the city is distracting from and even destroying parts of our history, which are probably more worthy of remembrance and reverence than anything the trail offers. The trail is so distracting, with all its tchotchkes, that it becomes the focus of the view in the areas it travels through. You might once have noticed the old commercial buildings on Mass Ave or the old residences on Walnut Street. Now, you'll be noticing the Ikea style light fixtures and way too many silly metal bollards.<br />
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This year, my neighborhood of Fountain Square gets its leg of the trail. I've been sure to walk along the construction/destruction zone often to gaze into the big dig as they tear up the street down to about 2 feet deep. What can currently be seen on Virginia Avenue under the layers of modern concrete and asphalt pavement is the old big-bricks street and old interurban tracks still laid on their wooden ties.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0SM0NhgDYFfywtsD3v58qtxcNjLp-pz8DrFIHhV0tz-S3JhWEJ0T7eb2xYSPzZ45mHl6_B0bM3NaEYOSVPpEaZE3c-0F_7NcfPNX1Dm9vRh17Zo2JYQaKlHQp7yGs31nrplw-LMfmbZM/s1600/IMG00054-20110414-1643.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0SM0NhgDYFfywtsD3v58qtxcNjLp-pz8DrFIHhV0tz-S3JhWEJ0T7eb2xYSPzZ45mHl6_B0bM3NaEYOSVPpEaZE3c-0F_7NcfPNX1Dm9vRh17Zo2JYQaKlHQp7yGs31nrplw-LMfmbZM/s400/IMG00054-20110414-1643.jpg" width="400" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiog_VhTAVY7zAyqa-nePLVKeeFLUxh_Ggm5_o8i0NZ9ujoshP2ubwSgpH5lvVvdnvVVC5yQif4Ty6K6iZVl6WH93OlcJjn-RVznGW8SDl6c2h4pdDaorRzHo_ner18SLxJbf4AGJ_2gRU/s1600/IMG00056-20110414-1644.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKDITHhFtiav9wIUO1aGJP9U9q0TWNmpmxgvdsH57f61VyVnddrfhPXbc8JG62ZkL7BdpGIzGRdTQapIKNVtpysZEzMsAf900LNcHHSJz3KLBPD_UDGsZiPuNpziaJBLFX9gv5fqeQtaE/s1600/IMG00058-20110414-1646.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a> <br />
[A clean cut shows the old brick street beneath the many layers of modern pavement]<br />
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There's a view at our culture! This pavement and these tracks harken to the days when Virginia Avenue was a happening hub of German retail businesses, theaters showing silent films, grocery stores and artisans shops and traveling dramatic troupes. A time when you could get on the interurban in Franklin and quickly arrive to spend the day in Fountain Square, maybe stopping at the farmer's market that used to be on South Street, or going on to downtown to shop at Ayres. The days before the interstate severed Fletcher Place and Fountain Square, before Fletcher Place even had a separate name, back to the time when Woodlawn Street might still be remembered as a reference to the Calvin Fletcher farm, Woodlawn, which he platted into building sites to create this entire area.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKDITHhFtiav9wIUO1aGJP9U9q0TWNmpmxgvdsH57f61VyVnddrfhPXbc8JG62ZkL7BdpGIzGRdTQapIKNVtpysZEzMsAf900LNcHHSJz3KLBPD_UDGsZiPuNpziaJBLFX9gv5fqeQtaE/s1600/IMG00058-20110414-1646.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKDITHhFtiav9wIUO1aGJP9U9q0TWNmpmxgvdsH57f61VyVnddrfhPXbc8JG62ZkL7BdpGIzGRdTQapIKNVtpysZEzMsAf900LNcHHSJz3KLBPD_UDGsZiPuNpziaJBLFX9gv5fqeQtaE/s400/IMG00058-20110414-1646.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>[more of the old Interurban line not yet yanked out and discarded] <br />
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Today Fountain Square lays some legitimate claim to being an arts district. There are a few galleries and there are lots of artists living and working here. There's definitely culinary craft in our great locally owned restaurants and cool stuff in our handful of funky shops. We're worthy of being a leg on a trail to connect up the downtown Indianapolis interesting spots. But an even deeper view into our culture is briefly revealed now by construction of the trail that will soon rip it from our past.<br />
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I think it would be great if the movers in this trail idea would take a step back from creating a uniform, generic sidewalk with a few bits of art installed along it and the occasional marker to <i>SAY</i> something historic happened here, to somehow preserving and revealing a small portion of the actual link to our history and formative culture, which they are currently digging up and destroying in order to install their cute pavers. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiog_VhTAVY7zAyqa-nePLVKeeFLUxh_Ggm5_o8i0NZ9ujoshP2ubwSgpH5lvVvdnvVVC5yQif4Ty6K6iZVl6WH93OlcJjn-RVznGW8SDl6c2h4pdDaorRzHo_ner18SLxJbf4AGJ_2gRU/s1600/IMG00056-20110414-1644.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiog_VhTAVY7zAyqa-nePLVKeeFLUxh_Ggm5_o8i0NZ9ujoshP2ubwSgpH5lvVvdnvVVC5yQif4Ty6K6iZVl6WH93OlcJjn-RVznGW8SDl6c2h4pdDaorRzHo_ner18SLxJbf4AGJ_2gRU/s640/IMG00056-20110414-1644.jpg" width="640" /></a>[See the old railroad ties beneath the brick street?]<br />
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I know that isn't likely to happen. Our history is being destroyed every day by the city and private interests. And the Cultural Trail is a fun idea so it's not popular to dislike it. Still, it could be a truly <i>great</i> idea if it also <i>preserved</i> our culture in the process of marketing it. Any chance you're listening, Brian Payne?A Year at the Riverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17836965128291916468noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2842483528656738212.post-35142009050999399632011-04-06T07:37:00.000-07:002011-04-11T19:16:32.996-07:00Enochsburg. Wow! look at these limestone houses! Oh, and the fried chicken is great!A drive through southeastern Indiana took me into Enochsburg yesterday. Bordering Decatur and Franklin counties, Enochsburg, like much of this area, was settled by German immigrants. Smaller than nearby Oldenburg, which was and is a Catholic community, Enochsburg's forefathers and -mothers were German Evangelicals. These stalwart immigrants built a stone church on a strong foundation in 1858. The church still stands today, although the centerpiece of the community is probably the Fireside Inn, which draws a large regional clientele to its tasty fried chicken.<br />
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I've eaten my share of fried chicken, but these days it's the limestone church, houses and nearby bridge that fascinate me more. With apologies for my blackberry-snapped photographs, here's a little bit of what's charming about the countryside's built environment in this area.<br />
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Decatur County isn't, but should be, famous for its beautiful, arched limestone bridges. A very early limestone industry sprang up in Decatur County (the foundation stone for the second Indiana State House came from Decatur County). This triple-arched bridge on County Line Road just south of Enochsburg is just one example of how the county made aesthetic and practical use of its limestone. Off to the west of this bridge on CR 150 S, is another example, a beautiful stone house.<br />
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Although there are metal numbers on the facade of this great vernacular style house that date it to 1880, I suspect it's an even earlier example. Probably from the 1860s. Isn't she a beauty?<br />
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Travel north on County Line Road just a bit and there's another equally beautiful limestone house sitting on a rise, still partly sheltered by the cedar trees that were probably planted in an allee leading to the front door at one time. <br />
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A number of limestone outbuildings remain at the modernized farms nearby and behind some of the more modern bungalows in Enochsburg proper. These outbuildings attest to the easy pickings for scraps and overburden that were leftover from harvesting stone for proper buildings. Limestone outcroppings are still visible along the creeks and waterways of the area, too.<br />
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Finally, like the German settlers before us, we reach Enochsburg's grand limestone church. Placed on the highest spot in town it was once the figurative center of community and culture. It's a beautiful old building; marked 1858 on the gilded tablet in the facade. Perhaps less of a draw these days than the Fireside Inn's fried chicken, this church reminds us why Enochsburg is here and how our ancestors made the highest use of a local material. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSUGL9983dysw5tPH5_MuydHD3g1_ey-Ph8zS1z6ADXZEZEowW-FCq9NZpw5LQAdEnKktqNCHl5_V9EAJFWqf3qdQHBJusWv1dmx96Hl-sTYLmHp20i4iq-eNIpx_p_ZmboGetQ44KXqM/s1600/church.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSUGL9983dysw5tPH5_MuydHD3g1_ey-Ph8zS1z6ADXZEZEowW-FCq9NZpw5LQAdEnKktqNCHl5_V9EAJFWqf3qdQHBJusWv1dmx96Hl-sTYLmHp20i4iq-eNIpx_p_ZmboGetQ44KXqM/s320/church.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>A Year at the Riverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17836965128291916468noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2842483528656738212.post-53028583309546984212011-02-12T15:12:00.000-08:002011-06-28T06:17:51.014-07:00Muscatatuck State Mental Hospital / Army Urban Combat Training Grounds<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrSofpR87Nl5W0GZhieHogeG2PyyW7Wb7BPbX2AOhC0D0EcQQdhdphSQDmv1FDxDQ5GoGP1D21tEzUlSWaWhkVaV1YpBZM5hznv0dDCPFkhZBDv0Rv38iw2TGvQ_QO_rye3qhFEDiHJU4/s1600/muscatuckschool.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" h5="true" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrSofpR87Nl5W0GZhieHogeG2PyyW7Wb7BPbX2AOhC0D0EcQQdhdphSQDmv1FDxDQ5GoGP1D21tEzUlSWaWhkVaV1YpBZM5hznv0dDCPFkhZBDv0Rv38iw2TGvQ_QO_rye3qhFEDiHJU4/s400/muscatuckschool.jpg" width="400" /></a>The Muscatatuck State Hospital opened in 1920 as the Indiana Farm Colony for Feeble Minded Youth. It was one of several state hospitals serving Indiana's mentally disabled. According to the idea lab at Purdue University's webpage <a href="http://idealab.tech.purdue.edu/muscatatuck/home.html">http://idealab.tech.purdue.edu/muscatatuck/home.html</a> the hospital initially served only male youths. They lived in three farmhouses on this property near both Muscatatuck River and Brush Creek. Like the architecture at all of Indiana's state mental health institutions this campuses's architecture is wonderful.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">In the 1920s and 1930s the first dormitories went up on the campus and the first women became inmates. These dorms and most of the other existing buildings went up in the midst of the Art Deco Movement and they are grand representations of that style. These photos, captured with my telephone don't do justice to the marvelous Deco genre expressed in aluminum details and yellow brick walls.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaJ8suq0b0ILHxAQDkMP7UJS3QqAd3wd2dXXgbK_S9Re08V9YRov8a4j7n3zg-LlZX3L9iGh8IE6z0wRrm4FphQJM0dtiH-W7O8lFl4XdYCE494b3f2_F0p6fvfS7R7_HLePp25XVtPn0/s1600/muscatatuck3storybilding.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" h5="true" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaJ8suq0b0ILHxAQDkMP7UJS3QqAd3wd2dXXgbK_S9Re08V9YRov8a4j7n3zg-LlZX3L9iGh8IE6z0wRrm4FphQJM0dtiH-W7O8lFl4XdYCE494b3f2_F0p6fvfS7R7_HLePp25XVtPn0/s400/muscatatuck3storybilding.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">The hospital building is an Art Deco gem built in the 1940s.<br />
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The state hospital stopped treating the mentally ill in 2005 and became an Indiana Army National Guard training center. Today, the campus holds acres of shipping containers, FEMA trailers, a inexplicable mosque, steel girders supporting concrete block half walls, and topsy turvy structures creating an intentional look and feel of a bombed-out town. </div><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKZepylhN1ChKwrihFQRKGKPaeNb8LCVK9eJWPNQT9HW4qqEDxsQ0tYmOEsrsgIuxnQys-OYd0aLM3FwyW1aiVi6RCaHL0JlSGjDNCu8uJfdqrtlFRMUlzlZntQ8S2eS8rtkXRBbjnAWI/s1600/muscatucktemple.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" h5="true" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKZepylhN1ChKwrihFQRKGKPaeNb8LCVK9eJWPNQT9HW4qqEDxsQ0tYmOEsrsgIuxnQys-OYd0aLM3FwyW1aiVi6RCaHL0JlSGjDNCu8uJfdqrtlFRMUlzlZntQ8S2eS8rtkXRBbjnAWI/s320/muscatucktemple.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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In the midst of this intentional chaos, the original buildings retain their streamlined machine-age stylishness.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi90rW0OUnSUtFjsPHNbSioYPcW08F9VtarRduYxX0e6ySFxxNU7exJVir_Ysy-rJmESSsBpnuSfVvh-OiQCZeoWofA-L7i1kEWwDLkWZzM2AXW91UH_fRKZHzDSs4tfiAdDEDGOTepPYI/s1600/muscatuckoldandnewbuildings.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" h5="true" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi90rW0OUnSUtFjsPHNbSioYPcW08F9VtarRduYxX0e6ySFxxNU7exJVir_Ysy-rJmESSsBpnuSfVvh-OiQCZeoWofA-L7i1kEWwDLkWZzM2AXW91UH_fRKZHzDSs4tfiAdDEDGOTepPYI/s400/muscatuckoldandnewbuildings.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>A Year at the Riverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17836965128291916468noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2842483528656738212.post-85320440693669201112011-01-05T18:51:00.000-08:002011-01-07T10:10:38.704-08:00I went to Alert Indiana and found a round barn--and a state bank.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLGmXRbW1XylOn8CdeT-C9tZ7E5jwG2B8Jwh1g9eawHEPOQ3UyFxAOmNNopBEWIrme77RW-2BqjYIXVhavlv-KHbjsw0U9sJxoe6VZycKwon4ntQAlPrZOB34BNAVmBpN02hzb1TDWHlw/s1600/alertroundbarn1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLGmXRbW1XylOn8CdeT-C9tZ7E5jwG2B8Jwh1g9eawHEPOQ3UyFxAOmNNopBEWIrme77RW-2BqjYIXVhavlv-KHbjsw0U9sJxoe6VZycKwon4ntQAlPrZOB34BNAVmBpN02hzb1TDWHlw/s200/alertroundbarn1.jpg" width="200" /></a>Alert, Indiana, sits at a lonely crossroads in the southwestern corner of Decatur County. There's very little reason to visit. Once you find, it you can see why not many people live there. My father, who has lived all his 82 years in the county and now spends a good portion of his time with my mother on daily "country drives," says it's been 60 years since he last drove through Alert. We drove there yesterday to look for a building shown in the 1882 Atlas of Decatur County.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVwxaVqVuLoxi2HL3MeNqjob2IfV_dLQRFDGZLPYEJwJeP0zWYguhU79hZ4EWiEvJs4mr6ewLg-TuUU8J0Nm5hOgLT-zMmkhq7KJfBXCmhO3Hn5P50mcOv9mjX7wpCloCMWGznn41nCkE/s1600/alert.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="271" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVwxaVqVuLoxi2HL3MeNqjob2IfV_dLQRFDGZLPYEJwJeP0zWYguhU79hZ4EWiEvJs4mr6ewLg-TuUU8J0Nm5hOgLT-zMmkhq7KJfBXCmhO3Hn5P50mcOv9mjX7wpCloCMWGznn41nCkE/s320/alert.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
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Alert was important enough to merit its own map in that Atlas (that's it above). In 1882, it was a town of about 100 souls (probably triple the number who currently call it home), the second largest in Jackson Township after Sardinia, which had twice as many residents. The town had one local merchant, J. W. Spears, who was also Alert's biggest landholder and a breeder and purveyor of fancy chickens. Spears' general store, shown in the 1882 lithograph below, no longer stands. Though his house appears to still be the one that's falling down in the spot shown on the lithograph.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQYZt9-C4M5GODM10SoUfGiOoaBgFnGte3vh7Ng1xDSrVlxdDY7LfviWaSoPIeyvnF8ofSfL7-mRE1XR6tUgtS7HkvJAAKZpVDXAgHwaZnxcidyYeUpJLFF12sRfZ6cFOI7pXhL3iOwgk/s1600/decaturcospearsstorealert.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="262" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQYZt9-C4M5GODM10SoUfGiOoaBgFnGte3vh7Ng1xDSrVlxdDY7LfviWaSoPIeyvnF8ofSfL7-mRE1XR6tUgtS7HkvJAAKZpVDXAgHwaZnxcidyYeUpJLFF12sRfZ6cFOI7pXhL3iOwgk/s320/decaturcospearsstorealert.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>The location of the former Spears store is now occupied by a Masonic lodge constructed in the 1920s when the town still had enough residents to populate Alert Lodge #395. Sadly the lodge building has been worked over extensively and badly in the years since it membership died off or left town.<br />
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But there are a couple of buildings in Alert that are cool enough to justify the drive there. <br />
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The first is a round barn right at the edge of town (of course the edge of town is only four buildings from the center of town). Sitting on a rusticated concrete block foundation this barn must date to around 1910. It's horizontal siding could use a coat of paint but look at those great 9-light windows, not to mention the fabulous cupola on top. Its original owner must have been proud of the state-of-the-art choice he made when he opted for an innovative cutting-edge round barn. Perhaps he was sold on the idea by Benton Steele, Indiana's renowned round-barn designer/builder/promoter. In 2011, the shiny new standing-seam metal roof is a happy sign that someone feels proud of this beauty again.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLGmXRbW1XylOn8CdeT-C9tZ7E5jwG2B8Jwh1g9eawHEPOQ3UyFxAOmNNopBEWIrme77RW-2BqjYIXVhavlv-KHbjsw0U9sJxoe6VZycKwon4ntQAlPrZOB34BNAVmBpN02hzb1TDWHlw/s1600/alertroundbarn1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLGmXRbW1XylOn8CdeT-C9tZ7E5jwG2B8Jwh1g9eawHEPOQ3UyFxAOmNNopBEWIrme77RW-2BqjYIXVhavlv-KHbjsw0U9sJxoe6VZycKwon4ntQAlPrZOB34BNAVmBpN02hzb1TDWHlw/s320/alertroundbarn1.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">A round barn was a representation of modernity and innovation in agriculture. Just a couple of doors north of this barn is Alert's other interesting building. On the main street of this town centered on one rural intersection, this bank building was a built environment metaphor for growth and potential when it was constructed around 1900. The limestone frieze in the bank's brick facade announces it the "Alert State Bank."</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8c3rhDuW4TU3bt0VUFST_06BrRoeoV1uP8fA72Q_pRK8zn4RlKwKKlO1UTQjYeclX_zZrR6244ARpw7fBql123jJfUgafz2VEPFe_k_iUoBEs5nHWHIaj3j6feKH9FXEsysFNUOHW6CQ/s1600/alertstatebank.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="263" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8c3rhDuW4TU3bt0VUFST_06BrRoeoV1uP8fA72Q_pRK8zn4RlKwKKlO1UTQjYeclX_zZrR6244ARpw7fBql123jJfUgafz2VEPFe_k_iUoBEs5nHWHIaj3j6feKH9FXEsysFNUOHW6CQ/s320/alertstatebank.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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Nowadays, the Alert State Bank is someone's house--a nice reuse of the town's fanciest remaining building---aside from the round barn, that is. <br />
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In this tiny corner of Decatur County, Indiana, be Alert, there's interesting stuff in unexpected places.A Year at the Riverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17836965128291916468noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2842483528656738212.post-24827925164809315542010-11-20T08:47:00.000-08:002010-11-20T08:48:27.823-08:00Historic homes of Sardinia--the one in Decatur County.On a recent trip to Sardinia -- the Sardinia in Decatur County, Indiana, that is, I came upon this gorgeous old Italianate on that little settlement's main street, which is now SR 3. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivYh-KBQAfhCWwAFV-Wigl67R7v7TpsVVqnDOqLzrdEqsLW-z9N9UQwrZzgNrCS3mtyqcePWdmZeOxf5RQctllz-B0jxB8QVgPw8ioQ5jBvexa_k5re0cI6tbs4M3WNG92qcsdYOPigHQ/s1600/sardinialookingsouth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivYh-KBQAfhCWwAFV-Wigl67R7v7TpsVVqnDOqLzrdEqsLW-z9N9UQwrZzgNrCS3mtyqcePWdmZeOxf5RQctllz-B0jxB8QVgPw8ioQ5jBvexa_k5re0cI6tbs4M3WNG92qcsdYOPigHQ/s1600/sardinialookingsouth.jpg" /></a>Below is the same house in a photo taken from the east and looking west across the highway. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV8Y_9_jyZKhKmSmVDUAtN396kD_8fHqOe1ptqRrEuwZFPuoDlZnUgqv23ge6gTsYi4Neo7x3hRJFNtt_C3dCXGvhgkPG3GiXA9IwMdkqxbUsPRsghaLYe7Iv1Vj1qvwc-9XpcrKJtJTA/s1600/sardinialookingwest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV8Y_9_jyZKhKmSmVDUAtN396kD_8fHqOe1ptqRrEuwZFPuoDlZnUgqv23ge6gTsYi4Neo7x3hRJFNtt_C3dCXGvhgkPG3GiXA9IwMdkqxbUsPRsghaLYe7Iv1Vj1qvwc-9XpcrKJtJTA/s1600/sardinialookingwest.jpg" /></a>And below is an etching of this house from the 1882 Decatur County Atlas. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjydvY_eqLNtTT8Ch_L1KWcA-yFzbTroVoRFG2QuBsWdz83ouuFtuqUcR1VUYdngVgGPLSgLXHJr9r8bFxIL4miAA4RtIgLLPU7iY1NGQxq19iXdwQq6u2xjWOqHzQc6ETsxSJ7QSUvPHA/s1600/decaturcoharperandferansardinia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjydvY_eqLNtTT8Ch_L1KWcA-yFzbTroVoRFG2QuBsWdz83ouuFtuqUcR1VUYdngVgGPLSgLXHJr9r8bFxIL4miAA4RtIgLLPU7iY1NGQxq19iXdwQq6u2xjWOqHzQc6ETsxSJ7QSUvPHA/s320/decaturcoharperandferansardinia.jpg" width="187" /></a>You can see that the tower is now missing, but the rest of the house is pretty much intact, though several windows are boarded up and there are roof issues that will wear this beauty down fast. This would be a fabulously rewarding fixer-upper project for someone. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The bottom house in the atlas etching above is still standing just south of the brick one, too. But it's had an addition on the facade and new vinyl siding (yuck). It hurt my eyes, so I didn't take a photo.</div><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">Sardinia has an agricultural history of great wealth directly connected to the construction of the railroad through the town. Although settled in 1835, all the once-grand homes in Sardinia and the nearby countryside date to the 1850s through 1870s, a time when the railroad was king and before "agribusiness" meant confined feeding operations and ownership of thousands of acres. The wealthy of the countryside around Sardinia owned a few hundred acres at most. They made the most of them and the rich land made them rich. Their houses show it and many of those old houses remain, though most have been altered. The one below is still in good shape and probably one of the oldest in the area. She's a beauty, eh?</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXIY0cRWr09S41MtNtQNy9wQ5CRL3rvXURa4JJHT6bcqu9PcDDe2x1Hovup-_kemWjq2v_eO9MYfb31V9dyPUBWqjfw0HaIw6sa4H-oEyaRn6ZQXySBRmEdG9bbn-SxQZb76qwxAE9Grc/s1600/sardiniaincountry.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXIY0cRWr09S41MtNtQNy9wQ5CRL3rvXURa4JJHT6bcqu9PcDDe2x1Hovup-_kemWjq2v_eO9MYfb31V9dyPUBWqjfw0HaIw6sa4H-oEyaRn6ZQXySBRmEdG9bbn-SxQZb76qwxAE9Grc/s1600/sardiniaincountry.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I continue to be puzzled about the people who build cookie-cutter tract houses when grand dames like these exist all over the place. Decatur County is especially graced with existing brick homes from the second half of the 19th Century. I know it's expensive to restore an old house of this scale, but the $100,000 you might pay for a crappy house in a subdivision would go a long way toward turning a house like the first one into a restored beauty like this one. And it's an investment that helps us retain our history. You should think about it.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div>A Year at the Riverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17836965128291916468noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2842483528656738212.post-72251726244821365202010-11-01T17:53:00.000-07:002010-11-03T08:37:29.813-07:00Decatur County Brick Houses, then/nowI've always been intrigued by the Italianate-style brick houses that pepper the landscape of Decatur County, Indiana. I'm so intrigued that I decided to do a bit of research. Apparently even in 1882, when the county's atlas was published, these were considered to be some pretty terrific homes. Lots of Italianate homes are featured in lithographs in that atlas. And more than a few of them looked familiar to me. <br />
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So today, on my regular weekly visit to my parents in Greensburg, I took copies of those lithographs and we hunted for some of the houses. It wasn't as easy as I thought it would be, but so far, we've found two.<br />
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Here's the 1882 lithograph of the Residence of M. Grover, Greensburg, Indiana.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqSgtfJ85_orKJVvmV1kNvDLFyHiDFHXzRuDR6P6P9Ma1WyPJOpu1WcZ05a3WPJnHEvW6Upf1rBEoMTk8j2j8ytZtx-2m8pM0NA-PvSh9WjeDxhmeUPHSl79hZstI3kkNegVzoeq024fY/s1600/300blockCentral.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="281" nx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqSgtfJ85_orKJVvmV1kNvDLFyHiDFHXzRuDR6P6P9Ma1WyPJOpu1WcZ05a3WPJnHEvW6Upf1rBEoMTk8j2j8ytZtx-2m8pM0NA-PvSh9WjeDxhmeUPHSl79hZstI3kkNegVzoeq024fY/s320/300blockCentral.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
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At first I thought this was the house with later period alterations. Notice the unusual roofline and general shape, returns on the cornices and the siting on a hill. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoVs4ursa5uNGnZrX1cvhpknfDqIsYupPmQvnNpMEffgq1L-DGJIl0bY_9huDRHcLxFmvM37o0qhW-clX_GXKjSVtGrcpjsWg-uIAL8Dy0iLmUAjzVQAYRhWEJdPnSw24e40SGNg1hqqE/s1600/stuccohouse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="194" px="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoVs4ursa5uNGnZrX1cvhpknfDqIsYupPmQvnNpMEffgq1L-DGJIl0bY_9huDRHcLxFmvM37o0qhW-clX_GXKjSVtGrcpjsWg-uIAL8Dy0iLmUAjzVQAYRhWEJdPnSw24e40SGNg1hqqE/s320/stuccohouse.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
But no, that's not quite right. It's missing the bay window on the left side of the facade and it's not configured exactly right. <br />
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So we scouted the old center of Greensburg some more. <br />
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And got lucky. Here it is. The Grover house, in the 300 bock of Central Avenue, in 2010.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtsNmhQQ3jR9fJedq5B4WlBXChYGVzttD-cAURTDS0ffbfIjrvaNV78cdYVbO_WnFZ6fI-Ncqwk4CyVogxcG1zx-I9pm3ik-dIqEDph2JruH8LqhuxBQsSKzZ_iNRS2HX1LvPyFrm5RlA/s1600/centralavenue.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="278" nx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtsNmhQQ3jR9fJedq5B4WlBXChYGVzttD-cAURTDS0ffbfIjrvaNV78cdYVbO_WnFZ6fI-Ncqwk4CyVogxcG1zx-I9pm3ik-dIqEDph2JruH8LqhuxBQsSKzZ_iNRS2HX1LvPyFrm5RlA/s320/centralavenue.jpg" width="320" /></a>The three windows over the porch and the stone wall in front of the house clinched the ID. Once considered so impressive that someone sketched it and turned its image into a lithograph to represent the county's finest homes, this house now looks to be abandoned. That's some fine architecture going to ruin.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The other home we looked for was one of a multitude of Italianate farm houses constructed throughout the county in the 1870s. It would be a fascinating research project to see who the brick masons were who designed and constructed all these homes. Some are doppelgangers of their neighbors' or other homes just down the road. That happened to be the case here.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAX5W3NWN1Pwsi_kKLWIvYwm0BIN2QgMijYC2zamHaMmbcvOxb3DtmREaX81ORT9RmYMiqGeCEyAA4aqIbOUBEf22-OOjNcqziX3Ebgrq2ak7TbceSbQfy1EVC62T0U8r3TmwM_s65zRI/s1600/robbins.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="310" nx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAX5W3NWN1Pwsi_kKLWIvYwm0BIN2QgMijYC2zamHaMmbcvOxb3DtmREaX81ORT9RmYMiqGeCEyAA4aqIbOUBEf22-OOjNcqziX3Ebgrq2ak7TbceSbQfy1EVC62T0U8r3TmwM_s65zRI/s320/robbins.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Here's the 1882 atlas of the John E. Robbins farm. See the gable of the barn facing the road off to the right? Notice the stone wall in front?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">There are two houses in adjoining farms that match the design of the house in this litho. I'm not certain which is the right one. </div>The house below has new rectangular windows but the original arched openings are still visible, bricked in around the new windows. People, you shouldn't do that. Yuck. But even with these changes, you can see it's very similar to the, perhaps the very same, house in the litho.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq8wOLZv9JsWl55IK0UhZlrt7o1yG-drpNHFijHt8NPSGw6FwEjHcSN28adlw2gZx_x6p2Q1Bntc8pst8GxyetqaCcLq2eLliWZJrqs0_eNDXhPOeuwGpM0lnHLgYBggB78yu6vDtmjn4/s1600/robbins2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" nx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq8wOLZv9JsWl55IK0UhZlrt7o1yG-drpNHFijHt8NPSGw6FwEjHcSN28adlw2gZx_x6p2Q1Bntc8pst8GxyetqaCcLq2eLliWZJrqs0_eNDXhPOeuwGpM0lnHLgYBggB78yu6vDtmjn4/s320/robbins2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">And, lookee, next to the road, just to the north of this house (and not too far south of the one below), is the stone wall shown in the lithograph.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9zQTMZT2RTyopqvnaoW6RoZnjUwlnYqXpYF-7sdfaoisWVzyYSwrAs4fiJEorjTmJmGiuQuhcSs0CJ2VUAkdNUOqUwc9odjWeLOCi0Z648g-uwQ-ZIXrIQIWWK0Oe6bE9fCKAvy-8Xio/s1600/robbins3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="198" nx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9zQTMZT2RTyopqvnaoW6RoZnjUwlnYqXpYF-7sdfaoisWVzyYSwrAs4fiJEorjTmJmGiuQuhcSs0CJ2VUAkdNUOqUwc9odjWeLOCi0Z648g-uwQ-ZIXrIQIWWK0Oe6bE9fCKAvy-8Xio/s320/robbins3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">But wait. Just north of this house is its doppelganger. This second house is still in the Robbins family. Unfortunately, the trees are so thick you can't see the house well behind them in this photo. On the ground, I could see that the Gabled-Ell plan matched the one in the picture, and I could see the round oculus window under the gable, and the same brackets under the gable as shown in the house in the litho. The porch is the same configuration as the litho porch. AND, although it's nearly impossible to see through the trees, there is a board-and-batten barn behind the house to the right in exactly the same location and with the same windows as the one in the litho above.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8CEeV5OovCtE-diIP2ngXoW8uY6L9HRWU7n_-JJyl7j0eICG5-0rayVFun1Cwjn0hrz5_2i0x_XeYyuXEKbb9PBmh6N5rm_E3XFQXqd9JYiiQ8pKDIjwYd04HIC3kS6F8vJWR1YLZG-Y/s1600/robbins1pic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" nx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8CEeV5OovCtE-diIP2ngXoW8uY6L9HRWU7n_-JJyl7j0eICG5-0rayVFun1Cwjn0hrz5_2i0x_XeYyuXEKbb9PBmh6N5rm_E3XFQXqd9JYiiQ8pKDIjwYd04HIC3kS6F8vJWR1YLZG-Y/s320/robbins1pic.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">So, which of these is the house? </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Take a look at the front yard landscapes of both of these farmsteads, too. See the remnants of the plan shown in the lithograph? Although none of the trees in the two rows in front of the houses are old trees, both lawns show evidence that there was an allee of trees in the front lawn, later owners replanted trees where the original ones had been. Both of these farmsteads retain this landscape feature straight out of an Andrew Jackson Downing book.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I know one of these houses is the match. In my opinion, judging from the set back from the road, the curve in the road in front of the property, and the board-and-batten barn, and the fact that it's currently a Robbins family property, I think the second one is the Robbins farm shown in the lithograph. But since the first house also matches the one in the lithograph, and there's a portion of stone wall right next to the property, could be this is the one... Hm. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Final bit of analysis is the Atlas map. Not much help, it shows two houses [gray squares] on J. E. Robbins property along the Greensburg Sand Creek Toll Pike. And, by the way, the "school" noted on the map just south of the Robbins farm is still there, too.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXuusDuo5e6YXpUgt8WFhEzOYAYRCtU2Ix1oG1C90Cx5oeLY8NycpioLYymdTo76TW_tIhaewa_1jI5plq0QSq_Uod6d5aA1ko7Nw2o7KH6a5jy-gSk2JTHRZQfhzDSEfsT8iT4KuGvYU/s1600/decaturcowashingtontwpmap.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" px="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXuusDuo5e6YXpUgt8WFhEzOYAYRCtU2Ix1oG1C90Cx5oeLY8NycpioLYymdTo76TW_tIhaewa_1jI5plq0QSq_Uod6d5aA1ko7Nw2o7KH6a5jy-gSk2JTHRZQfhzDSEfsT8iT4KuGvYU/s400/decaturcowashingtontwpmap.jpg" width="272" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Which one is the one in the litho, then? What do you think? </div><br />
A Year at the Riverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17836965128291916468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2842483528656738212.post-30397412590240119672010-10-05T09:03:00.000-07:002010-10-06T07:13:14.891-07:00Tidbits on the City County Building, Indianapolis<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs-1JRpOtkXmTDF20L6BZbtq8bbG6qlDKjblQSB-VBUNSODyW9WHRfJM02Qvjo449nPDarrDNsJKhQHNJ-dKvCPRZN_fByQvkLF_r9THckUOXMYJCoIpvih5yW2upqbgTSU9usV5VVvgA/s1600/IMG_1322.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="280" px="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs-1JRpOtkXmTDF20L6BZbtq8bbG6qlDKjblQSB-VBUNSODyW9WHRfJM02Qvjo449nPDarrDNsJKhQHNJ-dKvCPRZN_fByQvkLF_r9THckUOXMYJCoIpvih5yW2upqbgTSU9usV5VVvgA/s320/IMG_1322.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>Last year I devoted an Urban Times column to the Indianapolis/Marion County City-County Building. You can read that column here: <a href="http://http//www.urbantimesonline.com/2009/07/appreciating-the-unappreciated-the-city-county-building/"></a><a href="http://www.urbantimesonline.com/2009/07/appreciating-the-unappreciated-the-city-county-building/">http://www.urbantimesonline.com/2009/07/appreciating-the-unappreciated-the-city-county-building/</a><br />
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The City-County building is a nice example of glass curtain-wall International Style and it deserves more appreciation than it has received. I hope that appreciation begins sooner rather than later so that we can protect the building from misguided renovations.<br />
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A couple of weeks ago, J. Parke Randall, one of the architects who helped design the City-County building, sent me copies of some original documents about it. I want to pass some of that information and other bits I've learned since writing the Urban Times column to all of you who have a mutual interest in the building and those who may come to appreciate it as they learn more about it. The information below is basically copied from the documents Parke Randall sent, though I added a bit of my own commentary in a couple of places.<br />
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According to a ring-bound booklet about the building, the City-County Building was a joint effort by the "Allied Architects & Engineers of Indianapolis." The firms involved were Lennox, Matthews, Simmons & Ford, Inc. and Vonnegut, Wright & Porteous, Inc., the local "Allied Architects and Engineers" group. Harley, Ellington & Day, Inc. was the consulting architects firm from Detroit. J. M. Rotz Engineering Co. provided mechanical engineers and Metropolitan Planners, Inc., the landscape designers.<br />
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According to a list compiled by the Indiana Architectural Foundation in 1994 people in the building design team included:<br />
Richard C. Lennox, Architect in Charge<br />
William C. Wright, Architect in Charge<br />
Robert E. Lakin, Project Architect (tower design, elevators, material selections, etc.)<br />
Marion L. Cramer, Structural Engineer<br />
Louis E. Penniston, Architect for the jail wing design<br />
Herbert M. Thompson, Architect for the courts wing design<br />
Joe McGuire, Architect (specifications)<br />
Courtney Macomber, Architect designer for all areas<br />
Lee Hollinden, curtain wall design<br />
Charles Pye, stair design<br />
Kenny Curtis, toilet room designs [and let me just say that the restrooms are modern-stylish in this building]<br />
Parke Randall, interior designs, cafeteria, Mayor's office, etc.<br />
Maynard Cox, structural design<br />
Dick Roettger, construction supervision<br />
Ken Goodrich, interior design (colors) [good work, Goodrich. The color choices are both elegant and whimsical in this building]<br />
Don Woehler, parking garage structural<br />
Don Hammond, Tom Leonard, Gordon Herbert, Milton Cuppy, draftsmen<br />
Bob Shroyer (models for preliminary design)<br />
John Coffin, structural canopies<br />
Joan Izor and Donna Polling secretaries<br />
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J. Parke Randall began working on the City-County building in April 1957, when he was 30; he finished in 1959. Prior to his position on this project he'd worked with E.I. Brown and the estimable Indianapolis architect, Edward D. Pierre. He joined Vonnegut, Wright & Porteus and, along with William (Bill) Wright, represented that firm as part of the Allied Architects on the C-C building. Randall kept a log of his work on the project, which included preliminary planning drawings and department layouts for the Mayor's Suite, Police Identification Dept., Crime Lab, Police Line Up, Police Property Dept., Photo Labs, Library, Detective Assembly, Health and Hospital Labs, Civil Engneer Labs, and Parking Garage.<br />
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Working on a building that deserves recognition but is mostly unappreciated must be a special kind of disappointment. If you know anyone involved in the design of the City-County Building, take a minute to say thanks for that good modern building, one of few in this city.A Year at the Riverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17836965128291916468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2842483528656738212.post-23539204560718737682010-08-19T18:34:00.000-07:002010-08-31T07:20:48.079-07:00Skidmore Owings and Merrill *SOM* in Indianapolis<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7oSIiq5B3rS5_cIGCiUEwVlXxqFzuE8YMAxJdJnKd5aoFi7bJr0VtAsK4E_2r7K5S4WK6OosgxWpReEZGde1awB2T9M9_lZYk4BTgnQ8-Vp6W8A5fz4bZAdsnfqDo50csW5RAWQZaYqc/s1600/Juliacarsonfront.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 251px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7oSIiq5B3rS5_cIGCiUEwVlXxqFzuE8YMAxJdJnKd5aoFi7bJr0VtAsK4E_2r7K5S4WK6OosgxWpReEZGde1awB2T9M9_lZYk4BTgnQ8-Vp6W8A5fz4bZAdsnfqDo50csW5RAWQZaYqc/s320/Juliacarsonfront.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5507477400364370930" /></a>Skidmore Owings and Merrill is a Chicago-based architecture firm made famous by its work in the International Style. Still winning awards for their innovative architecture, it's hard to list their best work, but among the most celebrated are the Lever House, John Hancock Center and Sears Tower. Lever House was one of the first glass curtain-wall office buildings in the U.S. when it went up in NYC in 1952. About 20 years later, SOM designed Chicago's John Hancock Center, and its Sears Tower was once the tallest building in the world. Their Infinity Tower opens in 2011 in Dubai. <br />
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This firm also has a nunber of significant connections to Indianapolis, and not just because they designed a handful of buildings in the city. <br />
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Nathaniel A. Owings, Nat, was born and raised in Indianapolis. In fact his family had been in the city more than a hundred years by then. His father, Nathaniel F. Owings was the Secretary/Treasurer of the Capitol Veneer Co. once located at 829 Chase St. In the book "Indianapolis Architecture" <iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=inar01-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=B000FP1SQU&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="align:left;padding-top:5px;width:131px;height:245px;padding-right:10px;"align="left" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe> the younger Owings said that he grew up at 23rd and Park, but by the time he was 11, in 1914, the Indianapolis City Directories give his parents' address as 318 W. 17th Street (now a parking lot). By 1916, Owings was about to enter high school at Indianapolis's Arsenal Tech. His father had died in the intervening years; the City Directory shows that his mother, Cora, was a widow, and the family, which included his sister, Eloise, had moved to 3705 E. 16th Street (now part of Brookside Park). None of these houses has survived Progress in Indianapolis, so we can't make a pilgrimage to his early architectural inspirations. <br />
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Both Owings and his sister left Indianapolis by the 1920s. Eloise moved to Paris to attend the Paris Parson School of Design. At the same time, Louis Skidmore was traveling around Europe on a fellowship after finishing his degree at MIT. Like most of us, Skidmore especially enjoyed Paris. According to Louis Skidmore, Jr., his parents, Eloise and Louis, met at the Cafe Deux Magots. When they returned to the U.S. together, Eloise introduced her future husband to her brother, his future partner, Nathaniel A. Owings. <br />
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In 1936, Skidmore and Owings began their partnership in Chicago; they opened a New York office the following year. The third partner, John Merrill, joined the firm after he left Granger & Bollenbacher in 1939. Merrill had worked on a number of Federal Housing Authority sponsored apartment complexes and Skidmore and Owings hoped to steal some of that business away to their firm. Vassar professor, Nicholas Adams, states in his book, "Skidmore, Owings and Merrill since 1936" <iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=inar01-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=1904313558&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="align:left;padding-top:5px;width:131px;height:245px;padding-right:10px;"align="left" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe> that SOM was the architect for Indianapolis's Marcy Village, an FHA apartment project near Broad Ripple in Indianapolis. But the architects of record on that project were Granger & Bollenbacher. Newspaper articles, beginning in 1938 and the project blue prints on file with the National Register nomination of Marcy Village all state G&B as architects. Perhaps Merrill worked on this project before he joined Skidmore and Owings but it seems impossible that Marcy Village could have been an SOM project. <br />
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Still, SOM had a profound effect on the built environment of Indianapolis. Their first project in Owings' home city was the gorgeous limestone-faced J. C. Penney building at 120 Monument Circle. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT7mpm63eKJJ1Y-ubwTuFo6xOCspFufhaTkkYtNyftE3CaIFQxW_uJ3VClTR8w-vyDuv1iWdX-tk2VriJC9WDvess2zNA93BZ1p7Sb_7m4op-D5KC3onKMbs6K_Ymh9r6ikRob-O23Jd4/s1600/IMG_1083.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 168px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT7mpm63eKJJ1Y-ubwTuFo6xOCspFufhaTkkYtNyftE3CaIFQxW_uJ3VClTR8w-vyDuv1iWdX-tk2VriJC9WDvess2zNA93BZ1p7Sb_7m4op-D5KC3onKMbs6K_Ymh9r6ikRob-O23Jd4/s320/IMG_1083.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5507481332220058242" /></a> [photo from "Indianapolis Architecture"] Constructed in 1950, two years before their famous Lever House International Style skyscraper was completed in NYC, the Penney's building is the object of preservationist scorn in Indianapolis because it replaced the fabulously opulent English Hotel and Opera House. Despite that grudge against the building, on its own merit, it was a beauty. At the beginning of downtown renewal, SOM offered Indianapolis an expansive and warm curved wall made of Indiana materials. There is truly reason to mourn the destruction of the English building, but, there is also reason to lament the later destruction of the beautifully modern Penney's, which has been replaced by a bland, post-modernish corporate HQ. <br />
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In its time the J. C. Penney building (or perhaps it was the firm's Lever House fame) must have impressed at least some in Indianapolis, for SOM landed another contract in the city in 1955. This time they built a modernist, glass curtain-wall low-rise office building for the Standard Life Insurance Company. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7oSIiq5B3rS5_cIGCiUEwVlXxqFzuE8YMAxJdJnKd5aoFi7bJr0VtAsK4E_2r7K5S4WK6OosgxWpReEZGde1awB2T9M9_lZYk4BTgnQ8-Vp6W8A5fz4bZAdsnfqDo50csW5RAWQZaYqc/s1600/Juliacarsonfront.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 251px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7oSIiq5B3rS5_cIGCiUEwVlXxqFzuE8YMAxJdJnKd5aoFi7bJr0VtAsK4E_2r7K5S4WK6OosgxWpReEZGde1awB2T9M9_lZYk4BTgnQ8-Vp6W8A5fz4bZAdsnfqDo50csW5RAWQZaYqc/s320/Juliacarsonfront.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5507477400364370930" /></a>Located at 300 E. Fall Creek Parkway, that building has not withstood the years particularly well. The neighborhood surrounding it has taken a downturn in the decades since its construction, but it must have always seemed out of context on this peninsula of land in a residential neighborhood. Traffic on Fall Creek Parkway moves so rapidly past the building that few people see it from the main facade with its International Style cantilevered aluninum canopy at the entry. Most are are more likely to recoginize it (if they notice it at all) from New Jersey Street's less-impressive facade. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJnNsCn7ZRI_BcEpwGMJeeox3u0Y7zeINBo7V5zTk_vaijY0v2AbkCFDJogyBZhOvxEiBZ3-87W6W0Yt5Qu4V-x1yUa3NB1p6dDNnUO_ZAx9NNKSP-Cir6yIWyefnw0EU1-4vnXgQCvcM/s1600/juliacarsonside.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 277px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJnNsCn7ZRI_BcEpwGMJeeox3u0Y7zeINBo7V5zTk_vaijY0v2AbkCFDJogyBZhOvxEiBZ3-87W6W0Yt5Qu4V-x1yUa3NB1p6dDNnUO_ZAx9NNKSP-Cir6yIWyefnw0EU1-4vnXgQCvcM/s320/juliacarsonside.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5507477791527665810" /></a>Now called the Julia Carson Government Center, the building has lately been the object of some rebirthing plans that will hopefully keep it around and relevant. <br />
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And there's still another SOM building in Indianapolis. The firm designed the former American Fletcher National Bank Building (now Chase Bank) at 101 Monument Circle. It opened in 1959, the same year that American Fletcher National Bank merged with Fidelity Bank & Trust. SOM gave Indiana's largest bank a modernist building in keeping with those modern times. They curved the spartan curtain-wall facade so it fit snugly onto the northeast quadrant of the Circle. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnTjhvTHfYb17xZChlbA1QwEsV3KBBfiCGfKuksLCMjI8HYzDZtIG12-P_q7wuR31S2UJZ-0UavTREjanaE0o3mG-fR51RijxxAPS1l_S-2EeTa_JrSGJgRzmDuRfTAYNlANYavVvL4iY/s1600/emporis.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 175px; height: 131px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnTjhvTHfYb17xZChlbA1QwEsV3KBBfiCGfKuksLCMjI8HYzDZtIG12-P_q7wuR31S2UJZ-0UavTREjanaE0o3mG-fR51RijxxAPS1l_S-2EeTa_JrSGJgRzmDuRfTAYNlANYavVvL4iY/s320/emporis.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5507480542284095858" /></a> [photo for sale at Emporis.com] Other than that curve, the building is classically International Style with great expanses of window walls and little ornament other than the wide, flat pilasters that rise from sidewalk to roof line. The interior was modern-opulent. Although American Fletcher National Bank dissolved into another banking giant in the 1970s and has been sold and merged into others since then, this elegant SOM building has staying power. In the midst of some remarkable and some unremarkable architecture on the Circle, it stands out as the most modern (far more so than many of the newer buildings). <br />
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Skidmore Owings and Merrill transformed the Circle with this building and the J. C. Penny building in the 1950s and they made their mark a bit further north along Fall Creek Parkway. That era of optimism and renewal brought good architecture to a city that has not seen much of it since then. SOM is internationally famous and continues to turn out remarkable buildings around the world, but Indianapolis has its own portion of that famous firm's work and can rightfully claim to have played an even more significant part in the creation of that firm.<em></em><em></em><em></em>A Year at the Riverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17836965128291916468noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2842483528656738212.post-4655809209262689832010-07-17T09:49:00.000-07:002011-07-01T05:25:14.020-07:00Avriel Shull's Thornhurst MCM Addition on the National Register<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinqhIGnusPe63MAvCc3q5x4kFWtOrJXLAvrkAwVkrPWJf8YQ5whENxm9kaNtG7pO09mroZzR9oLwt_722tS1reUSmG7twA5zSNuzzHA578jPDPcybxXL78eWHt-nd3mr65O_r1dJ2e7fI/s1600/489.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494920767530977218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinqhIGnusPe63MAvCc3q5x4kFWtOrJXLAvrkAwVkrPWJf8YQ5whENxm9kaNtG7pO09mroZzR9oLwt_722tS1reUSmG7twA5zSNuzzHA578jPDPcybxXL78eWHt-nd3mr65O_r1dJ2e7fI/s320/489.JPG" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 240px; margin: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 320px;" /></a><br />
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*Avriel Shull* has finally made it. Almost 3 years after I started work on the nomination for the Thornhurst Addition Historic District the National Park Service has recognized Thornhurst with listing on the National Register of Historic Places. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxlkSRFUYk3ObTSk422G_aiuCAU8ofByKjI0YeuLyc4dLjlHRinvY0vUJST0O-3ISlHWcDz1VcxpZNcfHmldwW56LbUf42eb8tMMhlUa-502FSEBYXhl3FpJyEt4W_Mvc8HPZOE0kzpA0/s1600/486.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494920460160028450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxlkSRFUYk3ObTSk422G_aiuCAU8ofByKjI0YeuLyc4dLjlHRinvY0vUJST0O-3ISlHWcDz1VcxpZNcfHmldwW56LbUf42eb8tMMhlUa-502FSEBYXhl3FpJyEt4W_Mvc8HPZOE0kzpA0/s320/486.JPG" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 240px; margin: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 320px;" /></a><br />
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The addition is listed under Criterion C for its intact Mid-Century Modern architecture by a master designer/builder, Avriel Shull. And it's listed as an exception to the 50-years or older age requirement because, even though some of the homes are not yet 50 years old, the work is so significant it merits recognition.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggiL_4XbvRBKUj_pSaSqZPkAEfTuvoq7D94rf2NHLvUMDVX-NVgQECpPKzzbPK3nSOIMx2fw4k5pB8eZKNdIu1z7gjcCAwcHXatEB-KMQZl3B65RSK7LOLC-OuRDXq0D6gc6PH6MJzFIE/s1600/448.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494920057386822738" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggiL_4XbvRBKUj_pSaSqZPkAEfTuvoq7D94rf2NHLvUMDVX-NVgQECpPKzzbPK3nSOIMx2fw4k5pB8eZKNdIu1z7gjcCAwcHXatEB-KMQZl3B65RSK7LOLC-OuRDXq0D6gc6PH6MJzFIE/s320/448.JPG" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 240px; margin: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 320px;" /></a><br />
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Thornhurst is now Indiana's first MCM addition to be on the National Register. I'm thrilled that Marsh Davis of Indiana Landmarks asked me to research and write this project. Marsh knew about my interest and research into Mid-Century Modern design stretching back 15 years or more to when I was the owner of a 20th Century vintage modern shop, durwyn smedley 20th century, as well as a historian.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibrc2nYZrjYGl0JmxobcvK4MM-Kz83pib-vgM75dewqimVjSQRsZ_meEy2koF_UYM_0BalxeZCIRaa11Sypcbqczz69GekaW1K0LpTEZi56xXlQLqK93rbYBQz_cnPTMRqODycAUBEG_o/s1600/455.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494921131316387474" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibrc2nYZrjYGl0JmxobcvK4MM-Kz83pib-vgM75dewqimVjSQRsZ_meEy2koF_UYM_0BalxeZCIRaa11Sypcbqczz69GekaW1K0LpTEZi56xXlQLqK93rbYBQz_cnPTMRqODycAUBEG_o/s320/455.JPG" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 240px; margin: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 320px;" /></a><br />
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This nomination brought all my past work and research into play, and it was a hard sell requiring lots of extra research, photos, money and time. But it payed off in the end. Yeah for Indiana! Yeah for Avriel Shull! Yeah for Thornhurst!<br />
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You can read the National Register nomination here: <a href="http://1.usa.gov/btb0vj">http://1.usa.gov/btb0vj</a>A Year at the Riverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17836965128291916468noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2842483528656738212.post-11631047178656970532010-07-12T15:04:00.000-07:002014-04-16T17:39:27.187-07:00Gunnison Magic HomesIf you have a 1940s cottage or a mid-century modern home with no known builder or architect, there's a chance it could be a pre-fab Gunnison Home manufactured in a factory in New Albany, Indiana.<br />
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Foster Gunnison was a successful salesman/ designer of custom light fixtures for buildings including the Empire State Building and Waldorf Astoria in the 1920s. Then, in 1935, he translated his architectural and design knowledge into a mass production pre-fab housing factory in New Albany, Indiana. Gunnison Magic Homes, later renamed Gunnison Housing Corporation, became the housing equivalent of Ford Motors, manufacturing interchangeable parts to assemble mass-produced houses. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioV1qXGBjcYT8peSuKGRylkbiLYYdtz2pgK6QN61r0IbNrVtIUtZ9t6d7SyuaiEwdnCcGECdnx8Igo8sSkkssRGMGFOYMt6-jO9IasxgCQ7fDF3Yw4JZolVq39oh_mlOlbK9Gd_NNhbgU/s1600/gunnison3.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioV1qXGBjcYT8peSuKGRylkbiLYYdtz2pgK6QN61r0IbNrVtIUtZ9t6d7SyuaiEwdnCcGECdnx8Igo8sSkkssRGMGFOYMt6-jO9IasxgCQ7fDF3Yw4JZolVq39oh_mlOlbK9Gd_NNhbgU/s320/gunnison3.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5493154880967088498" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 191px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 320px;" /></a><br />
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According to David Hounshell, who wrote, the book, "From the American System to Mass Production," Gunnison engineers designed an interchangeable wall panel that would fit 12 different house models by 1937. Gunnison could undersell a conventionally constructed house by almost 25%. A 1954 sales brochure states the homes sold for $8750 to $13,000, depending on options and floorplans, which could include breezeways and attached garages. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE09I7Twm84Gg8sBmrGaatEmV4PDYzOwtylt3YxAbcJFeM2zYQj3B9QI9qvefXi5jN8_2X8jZGaC95WAIDHKQd8Xr4jZuwrKhre5_5BQzDdLodgQ1jhkc79RUAsPTZfR1Vwq7obc3doaE/s1600/gunnison1.jpg"></a><br />
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Competition for mass-produced, pre-fab homes was heated. Famous architects, such as Walter Gropius, worked on pre- fab home designs. In Gropius's case, for General Panel Corporation. But Gunnison and most of these other firms never really became a driving force in architecture in the 1940s and 1950s.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTt1nuB7dc_l2sPBM0lwR_o6Rmv65JhH4s76Azp7za0-XFcBIuQgUwoK_-Afc42O4b6W1oMWZ_hfAFYddcWCmhWp2NgRpizq0Dma6jPj-59ROxIFU2oghpDs_sW9xcrODrZFIqOtG3J3w/s1600/gunnison2.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTt1nuB7dc_l2sPBM0lwR_o6Rmv65JhH4s76Azp7za0-XFcBIuQgUwoK_-Afc42O4b6W1oMWZ_hfAFYddcWCmhWp2NgRpizq0Dma6jPj-59ROxIFU2oghpDs_sW9xcrODrZFIqOtG3J3w/s320/gunnison2.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5493154662797055538" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 218px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 320px;" /></a><br />
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Gunnison employed about 300 people and claimed to have sold 4500 homes in 38 states by 1941. Gunnison was written about in Popular Science and national architecture and engineering magazines, but they aren't very well-known today outside of New Albany. They don't seem to have captured the imaginations or pocketbooks of the nation to the degree that the ubiquitious National Homes or even Lustrons did. The Gunnison plant was purchased by U.S. Steel in the 1940s and continued to produce ranch and split-level homes until 1974 in New Albany. Today, the factory is converted to a different use but you can still see Gunnison Homes in New Albany neighborhoods. <br />
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Do you have a Gunnison in your neighborhood? I think a neighborhood of these homes in good condition with original windows and siding would be eligible for the National Register. The Gunnison factory, too. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJGznceqTK6MftIEkxRQtw0CzcJQQxJ8jrrGb4i-FfxMWq1aRB-zMk2ABW_ecWbTRq7itogqFlkkOEH6hBpL_tiHfUBOmhSEPMSjulxOpn0P3LGBPKp0eP-qOHs8rES7IPcOWBBhVbrT4/s1600/gunnisonfactory.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJGznceqTK6MftIEkxRQtw0CzcJQQxJ8jrrGb4i-FfxMWq1aRB-zMk2ABW_ecWbTRq7itogqFlkkOEH6hBpL_tiHfUBOmhSEPMSjulxOpn0P3LGBPKp0eP-qOHs8rES7IPcOWBBhVbrT4/s320/gunnisonfactory.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5493155176321995650" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 99px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 320px;" /></a> Former Gunnison factory, New Albany.<i></i><i></i><i></i><i></i>A Year at the Riverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17836965128291916468noreply@blogger.com49tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2842483528656738212.post-89366913298185475622010-06-22T07:58:00.000-07:002011-05-17T05:37:04.410-07:00Avriel Shull and I<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhklKSF1GjzqDmdITziESDKQyHjwvoK7t9sPONEGM5-15JlPMY3kM891GCZUylDo03EjIPJgCHf-dlIWQZs8YkZPyG75bnm4OrGbGehedkKPLGBcSzIVaWqSHaFAxU5b06HFhBAxf1pGts/s1600/6+Thornhurst+first+house+in+Thornhurst+Add..JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5485615772921361570" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhklKSF1GjzqDmdITziESDKQyHjwvoK7t9sPONEGM5-15JlPMY3kM891GCZUylDo03EjIPJgCHf-dlIWQZs8YkZPyG75bnm4OrGbGehedkKPLGBcSzIVaWqSHaFAxU5b06HFhBAxf1pGts/s320/6+Thornhurst+first+house+in+Thornhurst+Add..JPG" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 171px; margin: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 320px;" /></a><br />
Avriel Shull has turned into a cigarette-smoking, blue-talking, red-haired guardian angel for me. Ever since Indiana Landmarks Modern Committee hired me to write a National Register of Historic Places nomination for her Thornhurst Addition, it seems that Avriel (the one-named Cher of Indiana architecture) shows up everywhere I go. <br />
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As an example, my new beau's ex-mother-in-law was sitting shiva and when we visited to pay our respects, one of the other attendees was Howard Wolner, an Indianapolis architect who was working at the same time as Avriel in the 1950s and 1960s (Wolner is still active). I mentioned that I had been researching and writing about Avriel Shull and he had an Avriel story about building a house right next to one she was building and hearing the bluest language he'd ever heard on a construction site coming from her. I've heard that story from several others; that's classic Avriel. <br />
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Avriel has become the Kevin Bacon of Indianapolis for me. Everyone's connected to Avriel. Either they lived in one of her houses, their parent went to Herron Art School with her, they worked for her, or, as in the case of my new friend, Keith, traced her drawings as a high school student! Everyone seems to have known Avriel. Everyone but me, that is. <br />
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But I'm getting to know her and the more I research and write about her, the better I like getting to know her. The National Register nomination is at the National Park Service waiting on confirmation to become the first Mid-Century Modern historic district in Indiana. But I'm still learning about her, researching and writing about her. So if you have an Avriel story, please share it with me. Avriel died in 1976 but her spirit definitely lives on in the many, many Avriel buildings and even more Avriel stories. <br />
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That picture up there, that's the first home Avriel built in Thornhurst Addition. Cool, huh?<script type="text/javascript">
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