Category: History
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The tragic story of Kylemore Castle
Mitchell Henry was in love. And he built this sprawling castle for his young wife Margaret. Nestled into this hillside in the Connemara region of Ireland’s County Galway, Mitchell’s 40,000-square-foot castle not only testifies to a man’s love for his wife, but it also belies the tragic end that befell his family. Mitchell Henry, born…
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A model for living the faith: Father McDyer and alleviating poverty in Glencolmcille
Christians get a bum rap these days as being bigoted and small minded. Perhaps it’s because some high-profile people who claim to follow Christ behave that way. Perhaps it’s because many people experienced a rule-based, condemning Christianity as children. But most Christians I know go quietly about their faith. The ones who live it out…
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The ring fort at Grainan of Aileach
Where the Inishowen Peninsula begins, way up near Ireland’s northernmost tip and not far from the border with Northern Ireland, a series of narrow country roads take you high up a hill to this structure. It’s a ring fort, a round structure of stone, thought to be built during medieval times. There’s some disagreement about…
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Elias Conwell may have been a rascal, but he sure had a nice house
You might never have heard of Napoleon, a small town in southeastern Indiana. But in the 1820s it was an important point of entry for people settling in central Indiana. The Michigan Road is its main street, and was then the major route to Indianapolis, 60 miles to the northwest. Moreover, Napoleon was an important…
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Whatever happened to Traders Point, Indiana?
It’s been gone for a half century, but there used to be a village right here on the Lafayette Road in what is now northwest Indianapolis. All that’s left is an abandoned farm co-op building and a county maintenance garage. Yet if you’ve ever spent any time here — encountering the two churches, the giant shopping center,…
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The Lafayette Road
You might have driven on it: US 52 between Indianapolis and Lafayette. Or if you’re local to the Indianapolis area, maybe you sometimes travel Lafayette Road in Marion County and Indianapolis Road in neighboring Boone County. You might not have guessed that this is one of Indiana’s oldest roads, dating to the 1830s. The fledgling state…
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Lincoln’s birthplaceKodak Automatic 35FKodak Gold 2002001
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Carnegie libraries in Indiana
Wealthy industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie built an astounding 1,689 libraries around the United States — plus 660 in the UK, 125 in Canada, and 35 in other countries around the world — between 1883 and 1929. Preservationist blogger Susie Trexler wrote recently about the rich variation in architectural styles among Carnegie libraries in California, Oregon,…
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1880 Paoli bridge, destroyed
This was the scene on the 1880 iron truss bridge in Paoli, Indiana, on Christmas Day. Despite the signs on both sides of this bridge declaring no trucks, a 13′ 3″ height limit, and a 6-ton weight limit, this too-tall semi loaded well beyond 6 tons with bottled water drove onto it anyway. Its trailer…