Building will help tell the story of the Beardsley family

One of my last interviews when I worked for The Papers in Milford was in Elkhart where a former carriage house of the Beardsley family at Main and Beardsley was being renovated by the Ruthmere Museum. It is believed it was originally built in 1874 and first used as a carriage house. It was an agricultural outbuilding with stables. In about 1912 it was separated from the farmstead and sold as a separate property. After that, it was an automotive repair shop and then likely in the 1920s or 1930s was converted into a house. When converted, the house was built inside the original shell of the building. Ironically, a fire in the building led to the Ruthmere Museum purchasing it. After receiving public input, it was decided the building would become the Beardsley Discovery Center, which will be used a visitor center for the museum. This is an interesting place to visit and a lot of the history of the city of Elkhart can be discovered at Ruthmere. There is more to see than just the mansion once owned by the Beardsley family.

Beardsley carriage house in Elkhart

Former advertisement for a chick hatchery is seen in Milford

This week’s post is somewhat unusual. A few years ago while walking in downtown Milford, where I used to work, I noticed a painting of a baby chick on the upper level and one side of an old building. After doing some checking, I was told it was once an advertisement for a baby chick hatchery in Milford. At one time there was a brick building between the Oppenheimer building and the railroad tracks on Emeline Street, just east of Main Street. The hatchery was located in that building, which is no longer there. Apparently there was an alley way underneath the building where the advertisement was about a block north of the hatchery on Main Street. The alley way is also no longer there. You can probably see both buildings are joined now. I gathered this information from posts on a Facebook page posted by those with memories of growing up in Milford. I don’t have specific dates except that the hatchery was likely in business in the 1950s. Small businesses were more likely to make it in those days before large poultry operations took over and crowded out the smaller operators. It was common back then to have much smaller operations and farmers had a little bit of everything on their farms. I am also told the baby chick will eventually be repainted in order to preserve some of Milford’s history.

Former advertisement for hatchery in Milford

Episcopal church has a very long history in Goshen

I have driven by it literally hundreds of times and I can see St. James Episcopal Church in Goshen, Elkhart County, is a very old church. It is located on East Lincoln Avenue. According to a history book about Goshen, the cornerstone for the church was laid Aug. 22, 1860. The building was consecrated two years later. From 1862 to 1887, pews in the church were rented. I also read the church has its roots in a missionary pastor from Howe, Indiana, who came to the town to preach in the late 1850s. Some men got together and formed a church in a local meeting house. It was used until the current church was built in the 1860s. The church had its ups and downs for many years until the Rev. Bruce Mosier arrived in 1948. He initiated reforms in the church and served as priest until he retired in 1968. The church is a beautiful old brick building. I also recently read a new pastor was hired in 2023. Through the years the church was renovated and repaired extensively. I am not sure how much of the church is still original, though it appears on the outside it still looks at least somewhat original.

St. James Episcopal Church in Goshen

Town of North Webster once had its own movie theater

Even in small towns, single screen movie theaters used to be much more common than they are today. Of course the large, multiple screen theaters replaced them often and then came DVDs, Netflix and more. The town of North Webster in Kosciusko County once had its own movie theater on Main Street. The building still stands and is shown in this week’s photo. It wasn’t easy finding information about the former theater. Most of what I found came from a response to a post on one of those “I Remember Growing Up In…” Facebook pages. According to the county GIS, the concrete block building was built in 1945. It showed first run movies and one of the memories shared on the Facebook page was a movie made in 1947 with local people used as actors. It appears the theater thrived in the decade of the 1950s when a lot of popular movies were shown such as “Giant” and some John Wayne, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis movies. It appears the theater was closed sometime in the 1960s. It was also noted for a single dollar you could buy a movie ticket, popcorn and some candy. Auctions were held in this building too. The movie projectors were likely auctioned off in 2022. I assume the building is still standing, but I know it was slated for demolition at some point.

Former movie theater in North Webster

Old building in downtown Milford dates to the early 1900s

I worked in Milford for nearly 20 years so I’m quite familiar with the history of the town including its buildings. Shown in this week’s photo is the Oppenheim building at the corner of Main and Emeline streets in downtown Milford, Kosciusko County. It is the building to the right. As can be seen at the top of the building, it was built in 1902. The owner of the building was Isaac Oppenheim, born in Russia and who immigrated to the United States in 1865. Oppenheim had the building rebuilt in 1902 after it was heavily damaged by a fire. It is believed Oppenheim Men’s Clothing was then the first business located in the building. After the clothing store closed, there were multiple grocery stores there including Wolferman Market. The Campbell family later owned a grocery store in the building before it was vacated in 1984 when a new grocery store was built along State Road 15 where the automobile traffic was much heavier. Isaac Oppenheim died in 1918 and was buried in the Jewish section of the Oakridge Cemetery in Goshen. He had a son named Willie who played for a baseball team in Milford. A couple of years ago there was a custom apparel business located in the building, but I am not sure if it is still there.

Historic building in downtown Milford

Old Concord Township school still remembered in display

Here’s another old school in Concord Township, Elkhart County, that is remembered in a display at Concord High School. The Concord Township District 4 school, also known as Dunlap School, was located on the south side of what is now U.S. Highway 33 at Arlene Avenue. It was a brick building built in 1876 according to Dean Garber’s book about one-room schools once located in Elkhart County. The brick building replaced a wood frame building which had been built in 1850. The wood frame building had replaced a log cabin where the school was originally started in the 1830s. It is said in Garber’s book when attendance grew larger, a curtain was strung across the room, dividing the school into two rooms and another teacher was hired. I’m not sure when the school was closed, but in the book it is noted it was up for sale in 1930. A legal description of the property is printed in the book. Another school was built in the late 1920s and it stood for several years before being closed and it was later demolished. At least something remains from the old township school. If you are interested in the history of schools in Concord Township, I would encourage you to visit the display just outside McCuen Gym at Concord High School.

Reminder of old Concord Township school

A reminder of a former high school in Concord Township

I was pleasantly surprised to see Concord High School has some appreciation for its history. Inside the current high school near McCuen Gym is a display area. Among the displays is this sign that was apparently above the main entrance to the old Concord Township High School. I determined that by looking at photos of the old school. It was also known as the Dunlap School and later the Central Building. The school was located at the intersection of U.S. Highway 33 and Mishawaka Road, also known as County Road 20 in Concord Township, Elkhart County. According to information provided by the school district, the old school was built in 1928/29 and the first classes were held there in September 1929. An addition was built in 1948. It was demolished in April 1996. Concord did not have an on campus spectator gym for basketball until the 1950s. That gym is still used by Concord Intermediate School. There was a gym in the basement of the old school, but it was deemed unsafe and not fit for use. I really enjoyed researching this old school.

Remnant of former high school in Elkhart County

Old house in South Whitley was built before the year 1900

This is yet another example of an old house that surely has some history to it. I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to photograph it. This particular house is on Maple Street next to the post office in South Whitley. There is some disagreement on when it was built. The Whitley County GIS states it was built in 1860, but the Indiana Landmarks inventory of historic structures for the county says about 1885. The house architectural style is Italianate, which really became popular in the 1870s after the Civil War. There are probably some of those houses that were built in the early 1860s though. I am not sure which year is correct to be honest, but I would lean toward the 1880s. I am told the Glassley family lived here from the early 1900s roughly to about the 1950s. They owned a department store on nearby State Street. More recently the Cokl family lived in the house. Not many of these types of houses still stand, so it is a visible reminder of a once beautiful and detailed form of architecture used for building houses. I’m sure there is much more history involved than I’m presently aware of.

Historic house in South Whitley

Rural residence in Whitley County was originally a school

As I have said before, there are still quite a few of the old township one-room schoolhouses still standing in northern Indiana. Some of them have been converted to houses, such as this one at the intersection of State Road 9 and County Road 400 South, south of Columbia City in Columbia Township, Whitley County. It was known as the Schrader School. According to a book I have written by Beverly Henley about old schools in Whitley County, this school had a full basement with a furnace and two cloak rooms, one for boys and one for girls. There is a photo in this same book showing the class of 1933-34. I am not sure when the school was closed but it would have been when students were starting to be bussed to schools in town. Public education has went through numerous changes and one of those involved the closing of township schools. They were typically spaced out to a certain distance from each other to try to make it easier for kids to get to school when transportation was not as reliable as it is more often now. There were several schools in each township and with a few exceptions, most of them were one room.

Former schoolhouse in Whitley County

Scattered remains of old Brethren church in Kosciusko County

All that remains at the former site of the Pleasant View Chapel Church of the Brethren is part of the foundation of the church. It is located off County Road 1150 North near County Road 250 East in Van Buren Township, Kosciusko County. The church was started sometime in the 1870s and was originally part of the Solomon’s Creek district of the Brethren church denomination. It became its own congregation in 1915 and struggled to survive, with only about 35 members and a small area from which to draw members. It was in a rural area not nearly developed as it is now. The church closed its doors in 1930 after more than 50 years of ministry. However, it was able to live on in some form because the building materials were donated to nearby Camp Mack and used to build Becker Lodge. I should also note the church was located near the former Syracuse-Milford Railway that ran between Milford and Syracuse and was used to transport marl. To clarify, the railway never was used to carry passengers. When Pleasant View was part of the district, it also included Bethel Church of the Brethren. That church was eventually moved into the town of Milford a few miles away.

Remains of church in Kosciusko County