If Walls Could Talk … oh, how I miss that television show! Viewers were transported to some historic home across the country and received a free home tour from their couch. It was a tour filled with the most interesting tidbits that revealed something regional or historical in nature. Historic homes have character and unique features. I have been known to swoon specifically over brick Italianate homes, and I moved to Montgomery County in 2004 to nab one because they don’t often get sold outside the family. I had no job prospects lined up at the time, but I took a leap of faith, and lucky for me, the job fairy waved her magic wand. During the first year of living in my home, I conducted a house history. Though I received some 1970s photographs, a 1970s house drawing, and a title abstract from the previous homeowner, I wanted to build upon those artifacts with research of my own. I looked online and here at the Crawfordsville District Public Library to see what I could find.
Sometimes, patrons come into the library because they too recently moved to Crawfordsville, or they moved into another house intown. They would like to know when their house was built and who lived in the house before them. They also might wonder about specific parts of their house, noticing that different parts might be built differently than other parts. So how and where does one research to answer these questions? Let me walk you through it using the McClelland-Layne house as our example. Yes, it’s brick. Yes, it’s in the Italianate family. It is of the Italian Villa style, and the only one like it in Crawfordsville.
First, let’s do some armchair sleuthing. I would first check the Montgomery County Interim Report: Indiana Historic Sites and Structures Inventory. OK, what is this thing? In 1975, the Indiana Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology joined forces with the Historic Landmarks Foundation, (now known as the Indiana Landmarks and Historic Preservation) to start a program in which they surveyed historic structures across Indiana, county by county. This program was in response to the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. The federal government wanted to facilitate the preservation of cultural resources. So, during each survey, the experts took pictures of structures, filled out a report about their architecture, and often knocked on the door to see if the owner was home and could answer some questions. They then rated each structure according to its authenticity or integrity of the architectural style it belonged to. Each structure was given a rating of either O for Outstanding, N or Notable or C for Contributing. This sounds like a lot of work, and it was. It took them 20 years to get through Indiana, then they started over again. They compiled the reports from each county and with the information, published a book for each county.
The Montgomery County Interim Report is divided by townships, and Crawfordsville is divided into historic districts, like Elston Grove’s Historic District or Wabash College Historic District. I found the McClelland-Layne House in the section titled Crawfordsville Scattered Sites. For each section or district, there is a map with numbers. The numbers correlate to a house or structure, and then there is a listing for that structure. For example, the McCelland-Layne house was given the number 039, a rating of O for Outstanding, the official name of the structure which is McClelland-Layne house, the address of 602 Cherry St.; architectural style of Italianate, date when it was built of 1869, the category of significance and in this case for architecture, and then the USGS map number. The Montgomery County Interim Report is available online under the Digital Collections of IUPUI University Library or a hard copy is available for check out in the nonfiction area of the reference department, and another copy is kept in the local history area, also in the reference department. You can also find digital copies of the original inventory reports on the SHAARD website — State Historic Architectural and Archeological Research Database. There is a link on their website where you can click for access, and then it gives you the option to proceed as a guest.
Next, to the CDPL website which you can find the fastest by typing CDPL into Google. At the top of the CDPL website, under Services, click on Local History. Scroll down to CDPL Local History/Genealogy digitized resources. Here, depending when your house was built, you can find sources to help you. I found further information on the McClelland-Layne house in the 1878 Atlas of Montgomery County, the Montgomery County Township plat maps, and the 1925 Sanborn map of Crawfordsville. The Sanborn insurance maps were created to help communities fight fires more effectively. On this map, if you can locate which quadrant and its assigned number that your house lies in, you can come into the local history area and view large blown-up, laminated copies of that quadrant to see your house. Other outbuildings on the property might also be shown as it did for the McClelland-Layne house. Also, Sanborn insurance maps for Crawfordsville in 1887, 1892, and 1896 are available online through the Library of Congress. I found them through a quick Google search.
OK, just a few more sources. Once you find names of previous owners, you can use Presto, scrolling down on the CDPL homepage, to search for their names. Through Presto, I found that an article was written about the McClelland-Layne house in May 2017. Additionally, you can click the link for Hoosier Chronicles on our local history page and search online Crawfordsville newspapers for names. I found that in the Nov. 25 paper in 1869, the Crawfordsville Weekly Journal noted, “Dr. McClelland’s house, a handsome brick, in the north west part of the city, is almost completed.” There are also city directories in the local history area that can aid you with your search.
CDPL has a rich local history database where you can discover more about your history. Good luck in your quest to discover what your walls could say to you.
Amie Cox is a local history specialist at CDPL and the district media specialist at the Crawfordsville Community Schools.
