Endangered: The 1861 Flanagan/Kincaid House

This lovely 153-year-old house is among a small number of houses from this era that remain in Hamilton County, Indiana – and it’s in very real danger of being demolished.

Old house, Hamilton County

As I said when I first shared this house with you last year, it stands next to I-69 on 106th Street in Fishers, which is a suburb of Indianapolis. It is surrounded by housing subdivisions and office parks.

Old house, Hamilton County

According to The Indianapolis Star, the land-development company that owns the property planned to demolish the house last week to clear the way for office and retail development. Fortunately, historic preservation organizations intervened, and are talking with the developer about ways to save this historic house.

The news report confirmed some things I’ve learned about this house since I wrote about it last year. It was built in 1861 by Peter Flanagan. Its brick walls are said to be 13 inches thick! The property passed through members of the Flanagan family until 1934 when Loma Kincaid bought it. Mr. Kincaid founded the L. E. Kincaid & Sons butcher shop about 20 miles away in Indianapolis. His butcher shop is still in business. It’s not far from my home, and I’m an occasional customer there. I love connections like this!

Kincaid's

I’m rooting for the Flanagan/Kincaid house, but I feel pessimistic for it. Fishers is experiencing explosive growth, making this land very valuable. Additionally, the Indiana Department of Transportation is seriously considering adding an interchange at 106th St. with I-69. Given how close this house is to the existing overpass, I imagine that project would also imperil the house.

Old house, Hamilton County

I hope that the preservationists and historians on the case are persistent and tenacious.

One of the oldest houses in Indianapolis is the 1834 Boardman House. See it here.


Comments

7 responses to “Endangered: The 1861 Flanagan/Kincaid House”

  1. Christopher Smith Avatar
    Christopher Smith

    It would be shame to lose such a nice house, do they have a form of listing buildings in the US the same as we have here in the UK ie: a Listed buildings has restrictions on what the owners can do with them we also have different grades of listed buildings.could they not lift it and move it somewhere else after all we shipped a London bridge over to somewhere in the states a house shouldn’t be a problem.

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      We have the National Register of Historic Places. But if a house has never been nominated, it’s not automatically placed on the list. We lost a log cabin not far from my house a couple years ago because it wasn’t protected by the National Register. The cabin had been improved over the years — was expanded, was vinyl sided — so you couldn’t recognize it as a cabin. At least the fellow who owned it let the cabin be dismantled and stored, with hopes of having it reassembled on some other site someday.

      http://blog.jimgrey.net/2010/09/13/gas-station-to-be-built-on-site-of-michigan-road-log-cabin/

  2. Carole Grey Avatar
    Carole Grey

    So glad Historic Preservation is on board. They have been doing this for a long time and know what the hand writing on the wall says. They will do their utmost to find someone who will move this wonderful home. It hurts to see this type of history go but sometimes…

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      Yes, Landmarks knows what they’re doing in cases like this. If this house ultimately is demolished, it won’t be because Landmarks didn’t do everything possible to save it.

  3. Christopher Smith Avatar
    Christopher Smith

    Interesting story about the Cabin just goes to show where there’s a will there’s a way, shame about the video
    I was looking forward to seeing that but it seems to have long disappeared but I guess it was nearly 4 years ago. lets hope there’s a good ending with this wonderful old house.

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      Yeah, WISH-TV switched their site to a different platform early this year, and all videos from before then appear to be lost. Fortunately, I was able to download a copy of that story before it was lost online.

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d bloggers like this: