Helen Reske
Helen Reske
Pendleton resident Rachel Christenson shares some information about her home on Broadway Street on Sunday, Aug. 20, during Pendleton Porch Party.
Pendleton resident Rachel Christenson — shown here sharing information about her Broadway Street home during Pendleton Porch Party last year — received a Preservation Award this month from Historic Fall Creek, Pendleton Settlement.
By Helen Reske | For The Times-Post
If you read about it, what did you think about the historic house sitting next to I-69, empty and unattended, in Fishers? Did it bring back memories (if you are old enough) of the goals and beginnings of Historic Fall Creek, Pendleton Settlement?
Even if you have no memories of the struggle to preserve Pendleton, you may have feelings for, and opinions about, old buildings.
Back to the empty Federal-style farmhouse, built in 1861, in Hamilton County.
According to news reports, plans were being made in 2018 to make room for a roundabout, and to move the Flanagan-Morris-Kincaid house from land next to I-69 to an accessible site. The move never happened.
Allow me to think of the building as a pet that gets lost and cannot find its way home.
The poor pet watches as people scurry by, too busy to take care of it. It looks on with sad eyes and wonders if his master is among those passing.
Some people who drive by the abandoned home today probably wonder, “Where is the owner?”
The house looks lost facing the modern flow of traffic, just like the lost pet that watches passers-by.
Somehow, a lost pet can survive even when it’s shaggy, dirty and in need of a bath.
The pet survives, like an abandoned house can survive, even though the passers-by feel for it, but cannot fit it into the landscape.
Moving and materials for restoration enter into the thinking of those who deeply care about this house. This has been evidenced by the original feat of raising $115,000 to move it to the present site. Plans and decisions have been made the last few years. Like the passer-by of the lost pet, “Do I feed it, then it’s mine?”
Many have tried to solve the dilemma. Can the lost house survive in an area overcome with modern housing, traffic and businesses? Will it be fed and will it have a place to stay?
People in Pendleton have saved buildings by caring for them, and then they are theirs! Let’s keep on feeding the lost pets,…er, sorry, buildings and homes!
People who have done a great job of preserving their historical homes and receive this month’s Historic Fall Creek, Pendleton Settlement Preservation Award: Rachel Christenson, 300 S. Broadway, built in 1917 by George Kinnard; Lance and Veronica Weddle, 323 Taylor St., built in 1905 by Jack Dyer, Superintendent of Pendleton Schools.
The organization presents the award a few times per year. To be eligible, homes must be at least 50 years old and retain their original character.
They also must be on the town’s National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places, which includes most homes that were within town limits in 1991, when the Pendleton Settlement group succeeded in having the town placed on the register.
Helen Reske is a cofounder of Historic Fall Creek, Pendleton Settlement Inc., a historical preservation group focused on preserving historic buildings and culture in the area.