A tour of a mansion

On Saturday as I was leaving the farmers market, the owner of what is known as the Forsythe-McMahon house asked if I would like a tour of the house. Of course I said, "Yes". This large and imposing house on the corner of Washington and McKinley has been vacant for as long as I can remember and news that it might be rehabilitated was welcomed by many people.

We entered on the southwest side, the entry for the renters who will be on the second and third floors, but we first looked at the main floor. It is unfinished and will remain that way until a renter is found. It will then be finished for the renter's needs. 

There are two fireplaces that are in reasonable condition on this floor.

The second fireplace needs a bit of work

The ceiling and walls are unfinished and the studs are visible. Some of them are original and others are recent additions. Because of the long period in which this building was vacant, the whole interior had to be stripped down to the studs.

The basement has walls made of field stone from Ohio. It has windows and could be made into rentable space.

The second floor is one apartment and it will have tenants moving in soon. The large windows make for very nice views, including this view of the Courthouse.

Some finishing work needs to be completed but the main work is finished.

This floor has some circular walls that I thought were very appealing. My pictures, by the way, do not do justice to the interior of this building.

The third floor was once open, with no walls and people have told me it was used as a ballroom. If you look at the exterior, you can see its space will reflect the roof lines. The ceilings are not horizontal but sloping, and in the middle they reach up to the very peak of the house. Under the peak a loft has been built that will be reachable by a ladder that will slide on a track.

The third-floor kitchen still needs countertops. Though it is higher than the second floor, the views from the third floor are less impressive because the windows are smaller.

On the back of the house is a door that was once the maid's entrance and near it is what was the maid's bedroom. This door has been lowered and will get a ramp to make the main floor handicapped accessible.

This house was built in about 1895 by Benton or Benjamin Forsythe. He and his wife also built the Forsythe Building on the corner of Washington and Van Rensselaer. It burned in 1996 and its site is now a parking lot. Benton Forsythe lost his father when he was three and his mother six years later. He and his sister were then raised by an uncle. At 16 he began teaching school and then entered the business world. In Rensselaer he ran a dry-goods store called "The Chicago Bargain Store" and advertised frequently in the newspapers. In 1909 he and his wife decided to retire, but he could not sell his inventory in a bulk sale and decided to retail it in Winamac. While there his wife died and she is buried with family in Ohio. In the fall he had a sickly niece move in and she died a few weeks later. In 1912 he remarried, and this wife long outlived him and is buried with her second husband in Weston Cemetery. 

Benton Forsythe died in 1920 and left his Rensselaer assets to his wife and his farm assets to his three nephews provided that they pay his debts. They came to Rensselaer, inspected things, and decided they did not want the inheritance because they were not sure that selling the property he left them would yield enough to pay the debts. He owed $13,000 on the store, $2600 on his house, and $3500 on land. He looked a lot richer to his contemporaries than he was.

Below is a picture of the Forsythe Building from The People's Pilot of July 30, 1896. The Chicago Bargain Store opened in this building in October, 1896. 

Forsythe is buried in Weston Cemetery, the only person buried in his lot. If you want to learn more about him, you can search the Hoosier State Chronicles and see what the Rensselaer papers wrote about him.

Happenings

The Eagles had a motorcycle ride on Saturday. 

The tiny building that was a coffee shop across from the Courthouse has sold. I am pretty sure that the new business will be this one.

The sign below is in the window of the building that was Gutwein-Risner Insurance on Washington Street. (The insurance business moved to what was a law office on Harrison.)

In May the Park Board approved a request to use Milroy Park for a fashion show. I did not mark the date (June 17) in my calendar, so I missed it, but apparently it went well. It was not aimed at a local audience.

There is now a fence around the new lift station. Both it and the high-water treatment plant are in the same enclosure. A new fence is also being built in front of the Hyper Center in Brookside Park. It is intended to keep small children away from cars.

The Carnegie Players will be performing Sherlock Holmes on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings at 7:00 pm at 116 W Washington. Tickets are $8 at the door.

LaRue Pool has its first dollar day of the season on Friday, June 23. Attendance this year seems to me to be up from last year. There were very few individual season passes sold. Almost all of the admittances via pass are with the family pass.

Gutwein Pop Corn in Francesville has an open house on Friday from 10:30 am until 1:30 pm to celebrate their 25th anniversary.

Wednesday is the summer solstice. For the next six months daylight will decrease.

Rensselaer still needs rain.

County Council meeting

The agenda of the County Council meeting on Tuesday evening had two pages of additional appropriations, most involving salaries. The County is now factoring in longevity in salaries and the changes were to make the budgets compatible with this change. There was little discussion of most of the changes and almost all passed. Those that did not were tabled for more information. A potential tax abatement was also tabled for more information.

Construction of a new horse barn at the Fairgrounds has been held up by red tape, some but not all from the State. There was a lengthy discussion of a proposal to increase pay to two part-time workers in the Auditor's office who came out of retirement to train new employees. There was a concern that the increase might set an undesirable precedent, but a motion to increase the pay passed with one nay vote. The Council was warned that changes are coming to the County's use of GIS and Beacon for tracking property ownership; the current software is no longer supported and cannot be updated. The data will be migrated to a new system and the cost will have to be included in next year's budget.

Update: Left on the Facebook link to this post: "The fashion show was amazing, sorry you missed it!!! So many locals were there to support Preston and her beautiful collection. There were also models, who were local, that walked the runway in her designer pieces."