Friday, December 11, 2009

Pancoast

A bit west of I-65 on Bunkum Ave is a street that seems out of place. Pancoast Avenue is a short street, only a few hundred feet long, but it looks like a street that belongs in Rensselaer, not out in the middle of the country. (Yes, the Interstate is close, so close that its noise is quite noticeable, but to get the nearest exit is a three mile drive. So it is out in the middle of the country.) 

Going to the end and looking north, you can see three nice looking dwellings on the east side of the street.
 
On the west side of the street there are three other houses (one may be a duplex) and an apartment building with three units that stands out.
 
Here is a closer look. This building would look a bit unusual even in Rensselaer. It looks like it belongs in a big city. There are a lot of apartment buildings like this in Chicago.
 
They are the  Meadow Lane Apartments built in 1968, about the time that Interstate 65 was being built. However, the street is not called Meadow Lane, it is called Pancoast Avenue and appears on some maps as 925W. Why did someone build a three unit apartment here? 
 
There is even at least one business in the little subdivision, which a map calls South Meadows subdivision. 
 
There are a number of houses further west on Bunkum, but they are set back from the road and look like hundreds of other little houses that people have built in the country. If you like neighbors, why not live in town? If you want to get away from neighbors, why settle on a street that gives you a little neighborhood? Comments are welcome.

2 comments:

  1. tsFYI "Pancoast" subdivision was started by a Halstead. He was from Chicago and was an uncle of Alice Beth Miller Korniak. Alice Beth's mother was Loeva Halstead Miller Randle. So you could contact Alice Beth for more information.

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  2. I know the sewing shop is Trish Gastenau's. Her husband Jeff owns Rensselaer Tire.

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