Stories by author "Indiana Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology": 180
Stories
St. Mary’s of the Woods
In 1840, the Sisters of Providence, a religious order of Catholic nuns, immigrated to the United States from France. The Sisters, led by Saint Mother Theodore Guerin, came from France for the express purpose of establishing schools and orphanages in…
Evansville College
Conceived in large measure as part of a 1921 campus master plan, the three main features of the historic Evansville College campus are Administration Hall, the Circle, and the President’s House. They are now situated within the larger campus that…
DePauw University
Indiana Asbury University was granted its charter in 1837 and was the first Methodist College to be established in Indiana. Asbury quickly became a leading educational institution in the state. The name of the college was changed to DePauw…
Indiana Dental College
As the last quarter of the 19th century began, the idea of an education for all Americans was becoming a reality. Educated professionals were gaining acceptance, especially in medical fields. Medical and dental colleges sprang up with alarming…
Madame CJ Walker Building
Madame CJ Walker was the first African American woman to open the field of cosmetology as a new and lucrative industry for black Americans. Her experimentation with hair preparations for African American women eventually led to the establishment of…
Franklin College
Founded in the late 1830s, the Indiana Baptist Manual Labor Institute transitioned to being the four year liberal arts college known as Franklin College in 1844. Franklin College was the fifth college to be founded in the state of Indiana. According…
Eleutherian College
Eleutherian College was one of the first Indiana schools to admit students without regards to race or gender. Eleutherian was also the first school in Indiana to offer advanced educational opportunities to African-American students. The three-story…
Franklin County Seminary
The Franklin County Seminary opened in 1831 as part of a mandate in Indiana’s 1816 Constitution for each county to have a seminary. The concept of a publicly supported secondary educational system in the United States under a state-wide program was…
Homestead Hotel
In contrast to the opulence of both the French Lick Springs Hotel and the West Baden Springs Hotel is the more modest, mid-sized Homestead Hotel. This building, located across the street from the West Baden Springs Hotel, was built in 1913. Smaller…
West Baden Springs Hotel
The current West Baden Springs Hotel was constructed from 1901-1902, but the site was used for hotels prior to this incarnation. The earliest hotel in West Baden Springs was constructed on this site in 1845. With the arrival of the Louisville, New…
French Lick Springs Hotel
Located in the Springs Valley area of Orange County, the French Lick Springs Hotel helped make the region a destination for those in search of either mineral waters or casinos or, more likely, a combination of the two. The Springs Valley was rich…
Rockville Chautauqua Pavilion
Although built to house chautauqua events, the Rockville Chautauqua Pavilion is of a more simple form than some of the more camp and resort-like settings previously mentioned. It was built at Beechwood Park in 1913 when the Rockville Chautauqua was…
Chesterfield Spiritualist Camp
The Chesterfield Spiritualist Camp was established in 1890 outside of Anderson, Indiana. Modern spiritualism emerged in the mid-1800s and involves the science, philosophy, and religion of continuous life, based on the communication through a medium…
Fox Lake Resort
This African American resort community in northeastern Indiana was developed in 1924 when a group of Indiana businessmen decided to market the area exclusively to black families. Segregation abounded and African American families were not permitted…
Winona Lake
The Beyer brothers purchased a large parcel of land in 1886 on the shores of then Eagle Lake (later renamed Winona Lake) and opened Spring Fountain Park, a summer resort and amusement park. By 1895, the Winona Assembly and Summer School Association…
Lake Maxinkuckee
Lake Maxinkuckee, Indiana’s second largest lake, became a resort community beginning in the 1870s, and the area continues to be a summer vacation spot today. After the Civil War, industrialization led to more populated cities, and as cities became…
Fountain Park Chautauqua
The Fountain Park Chautauqua was created in 1895 by Remington Bank president Robert Parker. He envisioned an annual assembly to be held for people to discuss topics including religion, science, literature and the arts that was based on the…
Monon Park Dancing Pavilion
Monon Park was created in 1897 by the Monon Railroad as a way to encourage passengers to travel on the line. It ran from Chicago through Indianapolis to Louisville. Located on picturesque Cedar Lake, Monon Park was close enough to Chicago that…
Bartlett Real Estate Office
The Bartlett Real Estate Office was constructed in 1927 as the office for a resort development that Frederick Bartlett planned in Beverly Shores, a small community along the southern tip of Lake Michigan amidst the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.…
Carnegie Hall at Moore’s Hill College
Through the efforts of John Collins Moore, a college called the Moores Hill Male and Female Collegiate Institute (later known as Moores Hill College) was founded in Moores Hill, Indiana and opened to students in 1856. John C. Moore was the son of…
Borden Institute
The small town in northwestern Clark County (formally named New Providence) is now named Borden in honor of Professor William Wesley Borden, the leading citizen who donated the Borden Institute. The town of New Providence was originally founded in…
WPA Tunnel
Built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the tunnel provides a way for automobiles to access the infield.
WPA Barns
The State Fair Board has recently restored a number of these wooden buildings. They were all originally built with WPA funds. The WPA was one of several of FDR’s New Deal alphabet soup programs designed to help jobless workers during the Great…
Fairgrounds Track
The Fairgrounds have always had a horse track on this site. Sulky racing has long been part of the Fair tradition, going back well into the 19th century. There was enough room on the present site to build a regulation mile long oval track in 1892,…
Swine Barn
Indiana agriculture was reaching the end of its Golden Age when the Fair Board decided to build a new Hog Palace. This brick, steel, and tile building with concrete floors was extremely grand for its time, and it still serves its purpose well.…
Blue Ribbon Pavilion (Sheep Barn)
Note the sheep’s head medallions! Like those on the Swine Barn, they are made of terra cotta.
Service Building
Designed by Burns and Burns, these architects were first known for their traditional designs, but by the ‘50s, they had switched to Modernism. The lower level functioned as storage space, while the upper floors house administrative offices with…
Southwest Pavilion (Senior Citizen's Building)
This building was originally constructed by the WPA in 1936 as an exhibition hall. From this area behind the Home and Family Arts Building you can see the upper floor living quarters for seasonal fair workers. The adjacent open parking lot used to…
Northwest Pavilion (Poultry Building)
Kopf and Deery were the architects of this building as well, which is similar to the swine and horse barns. The stucco and half timbering (currently covered by metal panels) gives this pavilion an English Tudor look. The rooster medallions also…
Model Farmhouse (Superintendent's House)
The Model Farmhouse was built by the WPA as an example of an ideal modern farmhouse, and it was later used as an officer’s club during WWII. Built out of concrete block, the house includes an attached garage, wiring, plumbing, and other modern…