Tippecanoe Township

Explore the collective beauty of the Tippecanoe Township

Bourbon Residential Historic District

Summit Chapel-School

Highway 10 & Birch Road

Greek Revival/Gable-front, c. 1865

The existing frame schoolhouse was constructed about 1860-1865 on a site given to the township by a local pioneer farming family for use as a school, church, and cemetery in 1842. A log structure served as the original school, being built in 1855, but it suffered a fire and was replaced by the current building. The Summit Methodist Episcopal congregation used the building until they erected a separate church on the south side of the road in 1892. The congregation continued to use the building for dinners and preparation of flowers for decorating graves. A cloakroom was added to the front of the building in about 1915 and the bell tower which summoned children to school was removed in the following decades.

1928 ushered in the final year for operating the building as a school. Consolidation moved children to Tippecanoe into a unified building for the township. The building continued to serve the Methodist congregation and also as a precinct polling station for the township until the early 1960s. Wythougan Valley Preservation Council executed a long-term lease with the township in order to restore the building in 2001, and to use it for educational programs.

Erwin Family House

2518 14B Road

Greek Revival/Upright-and-wing, c. 1855

The Erwin family constructed an upright-and-wing house in the Greek Revival style in 1855. The house is an excellent example of the Greek Revival style used for the construction of an early frame farmhouse. Greek Revival was the dominant style of American domestic architecture between about 1830-1850 during which its popularity led it to be called the “National Style”. The style was particularly common in areas of rapid development during the 1830s-1850s. The Erwin House is also an example of upright-and-wing construction. The house type originated from Upstate New York and then spread west across the Upper Middle West. It is derived from a double-pile New England cottage (wing portion) and either a two story or one and a half story gable front type (upright portion).

The Erwin family had arrived in Marshall County from Stark County, Ohio between 1854 and 1855. Elisha Erwin, the patriarch, came to Tippecanoe Township in 1855 and settled on what was then the Beck farm. Lewis Erwin, who also resided on the property, was the son of Elisha and Mary Scott Erwin and became the guardian of his younger siblings in 1858, though the father did not die until 1887. Elisha moved away from the farm while Lewis, who married Lucinda Maxwell in 1853, continued to live at the farm until 1870 when they moved to Bourbon Township. The farm then passed to his brother, William, who lived at the property into the 1870s with his wife Jane (Cooper) and their four children. The property continued to be owned by William Erwin into the early 20th century at which time William Erwin’s landholdings were larger than any other private resident of Marshall County.

Gaskill-Erwin Farm

2595 14B Road

Italianate/Double-pile, 1879

The Gaskill-Erwin farm was first developed by the Joseph Gaskill family, an early farmer and lumber mill owner of the township, between 1860 and 1925. The original house constructed by the Gaskills was moved to the rear of the homestead property and converted into a storage building. The Gaskills constructed a large double-pile house in the Italianate style in 1879. The Erwin family purchased the farm in 1925 and added one of the first corn drying buildings in the county in about 1935.

The Gaskill-Erwin House is an excellent example of the Italianate style used on the construction of a large frame farmhouse. The Italianate style was popular between 1850 and 1880, particularly in Midwestern towns where the expansion of railroads brought wealth to communities and created a building boom during the period. The house is also an example of double-pile construction. The house type is a massed-plan type that is rectangular in plan, with two or two-and-a-half stories. The houses are two rooms wide and two rooms deep with a central hallway leading from the front to the back of the house. The staircase is located in the hallway or stair hall. The house type has been referred to as Georgian because of its popular use in the United States through the 18th century and into the early 19th century.

Joseph Gaskill and his family arrived in Marshall County from Stark County, Ohio in 1860. Gaskill was the proprietor of a sawmill and also farmed his eighty acre tract. His sawmill was located west of his home at the northeast corner of existing State Road 331 and County Road 14B. Lewis Erwin purchased the farm in about 1925. The Erwin family had arrived in Marshall County from Stark County, Ohio during the mid-1850s. Lewis, a grandson of the original Erwin to settle in the county, and Eleanor were the parents of two children, Emily (born in 1921) and William (born in 1925). William is the current owner of the property.

Mr. William Erwin has lived in the Gaskill-Erwin house most of his life. Mr. Erwin has served on committees for both Presidents Eisenhower and Johnson, and wrote the book Decisions for a Better America. Mr. Erwin served two terms as Indiana state senator after which he was part of the establishment of the Federal EPA. He later became the Assistant Secretary of Agriculture during President Ford’s administration. Due to his political career several people of note have visited the house including Governors Bowen and Whitcomb, Senators Andrews (North Dakota) and Capeheart (Indiana), Agriculture Secretary Earl Butz, EPA Administrator Bill Ruckelshaus, and Erwin Griswold, Dean of Harvard Law and Solicitor General for Presidents Johnson and Nixon.

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Argos Izaak Walton League

Explore the Redevelopment of Argos Izaak Walton League

7184 E. 16th Road

Park Rustic/Craftsman, 1935-1937

William Foker, stonemason

The Argos Izaak Walton League property is a total of 17 acres of constructed fishing ponds, structures, and buildings developed as a fish hatchery and meeting hall for the organization dedicated to the conservation of natural habitat for wildlife. In 1929, they purchased and developed the first two acres of the property. In 1934, the remaining 15 acres were purchased. Through an agreement with the United States Bureau of Fisheries a clubhouse was constructed under the New Deal projects of that era. The building was constructed under the direction of local stone mason William L. Foker in 1935-1937, with glacial stones in the Craftsman style. Some of the period structures on the property include a stone gateway, two artesian wells, three stone picnic tables/benches, and a sluice; these date to the New Deal construction on the site.

Spearheaded by avid outdoorsman Wilferd M. Harley, the Argos Chapter of the Izaak Walton League of America was created by Charter No. 68 on January 25, 1926; the initial name of the organization was Tippecanoe Fish Hatchery. Harley and seven other men who were anglers had made application to the State Department for minnows to be distributed in adjacent lakes and streams in an effort to replenish the rapidly depleting local supply of desired fresh water fish. The men began discussions in 1925 regarding the formation of a local chapter of the Izaak Walton League. William Foker, the stone mason, worked in both cut and uncut stone. In both methods he hand selected stone blending colors and shapes to provide a very aesthetically pleasing form to his creation. He is arguably one of the most accomplished masons in Indiana during the 20th century.

The Argos Downtown Commercial Historic District comprises approximately three of four blocks of the original business district, laid out in 1851. The town is situated along the north-south alignment of the Michigan Road. Original free-standing frame structures have given way to generally continuous facade lines of masonry constructed commercial structures built from 1883 to 1942. With few exceptions, the buildings retain a high level of character defining features of their original appearance. As with most historic commercial structures, the upper story facades are generally intact with a smaller number of storefronts retaining their historic appearance. A downtown revitalization effort in 1998 resulted in restoration style lighting, street trees, and partial brick sidewalks along Michigan and Walnut Streets. The Argos Public Library conducted an adaptive-reuse of the Schoonover Building at 118 N. Michigan St into its new home in 2008.

With the period of significance ranging from 1867 to 1942, the building styles are principally Italianate and 19th and 20th century functional, with some individual examples of other traditional Midwestern styles of the period also existing. The northernmost blocks were developed first and appear mostly as they did during the period of significance. One exception is the bank's acquisition and renovation of a 1920s era cafe for expansion space to the north in 1962. The corner lot on which the bank building is located was the original site of a frame flouring mill constructed in 1863. This structure was moved to the railroad when the bank was built and is still in existence. Just outside of the district, two frame buildings were demolished at the north end of the east side of North Michigan Street; one was the original two bay fire station with hose tower.

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Tippecanoe Township

Explore the collective beauty of the Tippecanoe Township

Page Directory

Argos Izaak Walton League

Explore the Redevelopment of Argos Izaak Walton League