Saved? The 1861 Flanagan/Kincaid House

Old house, Hamilton County

I’ve been following the efforts to save the Flanagan/Kincaid House, built in 1861 in what is now Fishers, Indiana. I had been curious about this house for years, as I drove by it frequently after dropping my sons off at their mom’s in Fishers. But then the house made news when the land developer that came to own it wanted to demolish it for new development.

Kincaid-interior-banner

Preservationists swung into action, aiming to move the house to a new location. They secured a site a half-mile away on the grounds of Navient, a student-loan management firm. They secured seed funding and kicked off a crowdfunding campaign to raise the remaining funds.

moveKincaidMap
Source: movethekincaidhouse.org

It’ll cost at least $115,000 to move this house. Crowdfunding hasn’t been very successful, but The Indianapolis Star reports that the move is scheduled for tomorrow, so perhaps angel donors have quietly come to the rescue.

Navient occupies a large parcel that borders I-69 between 106th and 116th Streets. The house will border and face I-69, which will give it great visibility from the highway. But it will be off any of the paved roads in the Navient complex, which will make it hard to reach. So it appears to be saved, but not in a way that is obviously useful.

I’ll keep following this move and report as the story unfolds!


Comments

9 responses to “Saved? The 1861 Flanagan/Kincaid House”

  1. pesoto74 Avatar

    Glad they are able to save it. I hope the move goes well. Sometimes it can be tricky moving those old brick houses.

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      Those walls are said to be a foot thick. I’m very curious to know how the house will handle the bending and twisting of the move.

      1. Mark Avatar
        Mark

        Houses are more resilient and malleable than one might think. The fact that it is brick does pose a problem wrt weight, but this is not a huge structure. There was a wood-frame house (c. 1750) in my hometown that was moved 2 years ago. The walls were lined with brick nogging, which worried the movers when they realized part of the route involved climbing 1000 ft. up a steep hill. But the move went fine.

        This house is unusual…or at least the windows are. Very slender. Unusual frieze board too. Kind of a tall upright house. Places like this have to be preserved…..if don’t save 150 yr. old places you’ll never have 250 yr. old places.

        1. Jim Grey Avatar

          Thanks for the perspective on moving houses like this!

          I’ve never seen another house quite like this one — it has some familiar themes, but definitely many unusual details.

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      Excellent! Thanks for the link.

  2. kiwiskan Avatar

    I’m so glad it’s being saved. So much falls to money-hungry developers

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      I was shocked to learn that the house was sold to a developer. It seems fait accompli that the developer would want to just raze the thing.

      1. kiwiskan Avatar

        totally agree

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