Logansport Indiana City Building

 

Before the building on the southeast corner of 6th Street and E. Broadway was built, beginning in 1924, the business of city government for Logansport was conducted inside a building on 3rd Street. The police station was located there as well.

In 1919 according to articles in the Logansport Pharos Reporter and the Logansport Daily Tribune there was some debate as to whether the city should build or buy the Kreuszberger building. The Kreuzberger building stood on the southwest corner of 3rd and E. Market. It was razed many years ago.

The city already owned a lot - the southeast corner of 6th and E. Broadway - that the city had purchased in 1889. So, in 1924 construction began.

Logansport Morning Press, March 30, 1924, page 5

June 18, 1925

Two big days of celebration were planned for the dedication of new buildings in Logansport.

Day one was dedication for the new city building and the new pavilion building at Riverside Park. Events included picnics, band concerts, visits to historical points, flag presentations and a speaker.

At the city building, Judge David C. Arthur spoke from a platform, which was erected on the east side of the new building. The crowd stood on the lot, purchased by the city, where the Dunn garage once stood.

For the noon hour a picnic lunch took place at Riverside. The crowd, including a large number of out-of-town guests, was invited to bring their picnic baskets.

At 2 o’clock there was a parade down E. Broadway.

And at 4:00 an estimated crowd of 10,000 people listened to the featured speaker - United States Senator James E. Watson – dedicate the Riverside Park pavilion.

Day two the same schedule took place, but with different speakers and the new buildings being dedicated that day were the central fire station and the Cass County hospital

Above: This is the Logansport IN city building decorated by an Evansville company.

August 28, 1952 Logansport Press, page 1

October 16, 1952 Logansport Press, page 1

The building got a new roof in 1952 and some much-needed repairs. Today the majority of the local citizens feel that it was unfortunate that the "repair" included removal of "all terra cotta decoration around the edge of the roof". But the news reports of the day explained that it was necessary because of "deterioration" and "chunks already falling to the ground".

Crew working on roof of city building in 1952.

1950s picture postcard image.

Inside the skylight (photo credit Jim Grey) is a work of art. The stained-glass piece is original to the building, installed during construction in 1924. In 1978 a major rehab project saw new leading for the piece as well as the addition of a clear dome over the glass to make it more weatherproof. 

The Mayor office is located on the 2nd floor. It was remodeled and updated during 

Mayor Michael Fincher's administration (2003-2011)

The city seal is painted on the underside of the staircase. Jim Grey photo

Third floor meeting rooms 2021. Photo credit Jim Grey.

Downtown Logansport 315 S. 6th Street

 This has to be the last, if not the only, building in downtown Logansport, Indiana to have had an advertisement for Mail Pouch tobacco painted on an exterior wall. The block for this address is between E. Broadway and E. Market. The Logansport City Building stands across the street at the present time, on the corner of E. Broadway and S. Sixth Street.

In the above photo 315 S. Sixth Street is the dark building in the center. At left the Gossard factory (gone now) and the old Post Office, which faces E. Market (still there). 

The building at the right of the parking lot was the former Pharos Tribune building, which was replaced with a new building which it occupies still - and this current building covers the entire parking lot pictured here.

Built around 1907 the building housed an electrical business. Mr. N. Costenborder, electrician advertised in the local newspapers. He was an "expert" at "refinishing chandeliers".  

In 1912 George Dial and Ora Goble opened a tire repair shop in the building. At the time the property directly across from them was a livery stable and offered "parking" for horse and wagon when rural folks came to town. 

1933 Ad (opened in 1930):

Owned by Fred and Mildred Llewellyn.

By 1938 the structure was shared by Byon Grelle, who offered household goods.

Above: Foundation at time of demolition.

This photo was taken on S. 6th Street looking west. 315 S. Sixth is at the left. The former building which housed the Logansport Pharos-Tribune and parking lot can be seen and the former Gourmet Cafeteria and David's at right would be facing E. Broadway (at right).

I confess that I searched for a demolition date but did not find one included in the materials at hand. I do believe that these are the last photos taken of the structure, so I'm guessing it was torn down in the 1970s.

Southwest Corner 5th and North

 Focusing on a corner in Logansport, Indiana, which was at one time a bank along the Wabash & Erie Canal.

The canal was dried up in 1875.

In 1922 a large automobile service station was built on this corner. It was said to be the largest of its kind in the area.

North Street would be at the right in this photo. The building across the street - North Street - still stands. It was the Elk Lodge.

August 17, 1922 Logansport Pharos Tribune clipping:

In August of 1934 Frank H. Sibley held a Grand Opening for his business, which opened here.

Above: The Elks building on North Street at Fifth and the historical marker for the Wabash & Erie Canal, which stands on the empty lot that once was Sibley's service station.

GERMAN BENEVOLENT CLUB - GERMAN SOCIETY

 

The German Benevolent Club was organized in Logansport in April of 1866. This photo shows the old “German Hall”, which stood at 427 5th Street (Now South 5^th St.). Estimated to have been built about 1876, it was the home of all the German societies/clubs in Logansport – and there were a lot of those in the early days of Logansport - just as there were for other immigrant groups. This building was also known as “Graf’s German Hall”. Note: this building, rather the remaining portion of it, would later become part of Amelio’s; doing business as "Amelio’s on The River" as of 2022, using that area as the restaurant/pub’s family dining area.

Amelio's By The River - before even more recent improvements to the exterior. The white siding area was original to the German Benevolent Club building.

Another German Society known as the Deutscher Verein met in rooms on the upper floors of the Kreuzberger building, which stood on the southwest corner of Third and E. Market Streets; razed many years ago. This was for German born residents and their descendants and was active for a long time. The Germania Gesang Verein, was a “singing society” which would meet for practice in the upper floors of the Kreuzberger building. Pictured below. The Mike Anderson Dodge, Ram, Chrysler, Jeep dealership occupies this corner as of 2022.

The Stone Building located at the corner of Clinton and Sherman Streets on Logansport’s south side, address 989 Sherman Street, is a reminder of an early German home.

 In the 1990s it was home to a tea house called Rose-Moor Emporium. Now it is a private residence. Made of limestone, the building is 20 by 70 feet, two-story, with a full basement. The walls are two feet thick at the base and narrow up to 18 inches at the top. The original stairs went down from the kitchen to the basement floor, which was originally, and for many, many years - dirt. The builder was Gottfried Gruenoch, a veteran of the Franco-Prussian war, who, like thousands of other Germans, emigrated to America to get away from Bismarck’s military service. He was a stone mason by trade. In the early 1800’s there were as many as 11 of these structures, in a “German settlement”. This settlement was even further outside of Logansport than Shultztown. 

Shultztown—named for Dr. J. B. Shultz—was west of Burlington Ave., A stand of trees stood between Burlington Ave. and Shultztown. That area was bordered by Anthony St. east, Howard St. north, Biddle St. south and by the Railroad to the west.

About 1868-1870 a German newspaper, the Fort Wayne Banner, printed in Fort Wayne was distributed by John A. N. Frentzel, a local editor or “newspaper gatherer”, in Logansport. But it wasn’t a financial success and soon ended.

From 1899 to 1913 or so, John Day (born in Bavaria) published a successful German language newspaper—the Freie Presse to accommodate the increasing German population of the Logansport area.

Those with German background can be thanked for involvement with St. Joseph Catholic Church, St. James Lutheran Church, beer brewing and beer gardens, expert meat butchering and butcher shops, cigar making and many other things, as all worked together to make Logansport, Indiana a great place to live.

THE TWO BARNETT HOTELS

 Let me begin by reminding the reader that we are talking about landmarks of Logansport, Indiana. And this particular post has to do with the Barnett Hotel and the "new" Barnett Hotel, which were two separate buildings.

WASHINGTON HALL - THE OLD BARNETT

This was the original "old" Barnett Hotel. It stood on the SW corner of 3rd and E. Market Street.

The old Barnett was built in 1820 by a Scotsman named Gillis McBane. At that time it was a one-story structure and it was known as Washington Hall. It was the main place for meetings by the town fathers - a town which would, in 1828, be incorporated as such and named Logansport. Ten years later, in 1838, Logansport would be incorporated as a city.

The hotel was a stop for the stagecoach line. After stopping here the stagecoach would continue on to Lafayette. 

Above: Painting of the Old Barnett by Wils Berry (1851-1928), from a private collection

1854 Logansport Journal - Ads in the paper would use the Barnett House as a landmark – example “Dr. Manlove, D.D.S. located nearly opposite the Barnett House…” and “Ferguson, Hill and Co. opening for spring and summer opposite the Barnett House…”

There were five other owners before Alexander Barnett bought the structure(1859) and named it the "Barnett". Those owners were Capt. T. Douglas, Capt. Benjamin Scott, Alexander Chamberlain, Cyrus Vigus and Benjamin Ganson. 

After Alexander Barnett bought the hotel (1859) he added two upper stories.

June 16, 1869

"The Barnett Brothers have leased the Barnett Hotel from their father and intend running it from the 1^st of July."  from Democratic Pharos, page 3

BECOMES A "FLOP HOUSE"

Between the years 1869 and 1880 the old Barnett went from being a nice hotel where people would sometimes stay while their houses were being constructed to an undesirable place.

May 15, 1880

…Within the past few years the corner position of the old Barnett House has become the concentration of all that is wicked and vile. The respectable inmates have been gradually driven out until now all except the west end of the building has been given over to the rats, harlots and men of the lowest stamp. Well may it be said that satan’s headquarters in Logansport were in the old Barnett House.

The state’s prosecutor took notice of this and called the attention of the grand jury that material here existed for a half dozen or more indictments against certain crooks for living in open and notorious adultery.

Several witnesses were examined. Warrants for offenders were issued.

The action of the grand jury and the prosecutor will go a long way toward bringing about better condition of affairs in the den known as the Old Barnett House.

The parties took their medicine but had some cuss words to say of the witnesses who had informed on them. From Logansport Weekly Journal

HOUSE CLEANING 1884

July 27, 1884

The Old Barnett House has been vacated, improved, renovated and purified. FROM AN ARTICLE BY JUDGE HORACE P. BIDDLE From the Critic

The Old Barnett burned sometime in 1893.

THE NEW BARNETT HOTEL

The "new" Barnett co-existed for about 13 years with the old as the "new" was built (across Market Street and down a little to the west) in 1880. 

Alexander and his wife left Logansport for a few years. They lived in California, then in Florida. When they returned they built the beautiful structure pictured above. Mrs. Barnett was credited with the design (see September 29, 1883 Logansport Weekly Journal, page 9).

Above: November 2, 1880 Logansport Evening Journal

Above: Barnett Hotel at left; the Nelson Theater (later the Roxy) at right circa 1911-12

1920 FIRE BARNETT HOTEL

On Sunday, February 8, 1920 a fire broke out inside the Barnett Hotel. The building was gutted, one person died and five others were injured as they escaped. Charles Finch, master carpenter for the Michigan division of the Pennsylvania Railroad was died after falling from a rope while trying to escape.

Above: 1920 fire at Barnett Hotel

The western section of the building was removed after the fire.

1920 Sanborn Map Image thanks to fellow researcher Jim Moore

Sanborn maps were initially created to estimate fire insurance risks.

REMODELED

The remodeled property became part of the Barnes family holdings. In 1965 it was announced that the business would close.

May 21, 1965 article Logansport Pharos Tribune

In November of 1965 it was announced in the Logansport newspapers that the building would be razed and that work would begin after Thanksgiving Day.

Photo and Story - 600 block E Broadway

 

Left in this photo (1910) is the Logansport/Cass County Public Library, 616 E. Broadway, next in the photo is the Roosevelt building, 7th Street intersects, then the Baptist Church (before the church's new structure). At right, notice the "Auto-Inn Buick" signage. This building was the former roller-skating rink building, which was torn down. On the roller rink property, the current Logansport City Government building was built. 

Ad from Logansport Reporter April 9, 1910

What follows are modern photos of the area. And if you care to scroll down further, you will find more historical photos and information about the area.

616 E. Broadway Logansport Cass Public Library, Logansport, Indiana.

Photo Google Maps

Library, parking lot where the Roosevelt building once stood, 7th St. intersects, Baptist Church.

Photo Google Maps

A little wider angle of above photos - Google Maps - 

Auto Inn would have been at the right in this image, across the 

street from the Library.

I want to draw attention to the building that housed Auto Inn in the 1910 photo at the top of the page, mainly because that building was gone by the mid 19-teens - in 1924 ground was broken on that site to build the Logansport City Government Building - and the history is rather interesting.

Before Auto Inn was housed in this building, it was used for gatherings, political meetings, and entertainment events, much like a community center of today is used. It was also the city's roller-skating rink, beginning in the late 1800s when roller skating became very popular.

SKATING RINK

Above: Members of the Logansport Fire Dept. pose in front of the skating rink

building. The fire station was next door to the west of the skating rink.  

Source: City Directories and Will Ball "This Changing World" columns.

Notice the Skating Rink roof at left. This photo was taken in 1898.

The city was welcoming home the soldiers from the Spanish-American War.

Looking west on E. Broadway the McCaffrey building at right; 600 E. Broadway 

(later Barton's and now Taqueria El Puesto), 6th Street intersects, then the

Keystone building at 530 E. Broadway and on and on.

There was a dirt lot south of the skating rink building. Buggies and wagons were parked there. And as the automobile became more popular such dirt "parking lots" became way less popular, with the dust and flies drawn to the horses and horse droppings.

In 1907 M. A. Cline bought the building.

AUTO INN

In 1909 Orpha Carter and Harry Moore bought the building.

October 31, 1909 Logansport Daily Tribune, page 5

May 11, 1910 Logansport Reporter page 8

As mentioned earlier, the building was eventually removed, the debris cleared away, and the beautiful new Logansport City Building was built. Before then the city government was conducted out of a building at 3rd and E. Broadway - a story for another time.

Photos: courtesy Cass County Historical Society, Info/history sources: Logansport newspapers, articles from "This Changing World" news columns by Will Ball (deceased)