Halcyon Villa, Halcyon Club, Halcyon Boat House
Meaning of Halycon:
characterized by happiness, great success, and prosperity; GOLDEN —often
used to describe an idyllic time in the past that is remembered as better
than today
A bird identified with the kingfisher and held in ancient legend to nest
at sea about the time of the winter solstice and to calm the waves during
incubation
This would encompass the land holdings of what is now the properties of
1680 E. Shore Dr and
1746 E. Shore Dr of
today; if not possibly a liitle more depending upon how the land was divided
by pictures have recently fbeen found below are images of the area of a
bygone era for these two parcels today:
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Here is an aerial view of the area a few years ago - it is my belief - that the
Ball property is and was the Haylcon Club along with a portion of or all of the the
property to the north which was the Osborn, Spiece, and then Bernerno property; leding
credence to this is a statement found:
In the article: Map of Maxinkuckee Lake Culver Citizen July 16, 1903 D. McDonald ...
Aub-bee-naub-bee creek named on the map which runs into the lake at the Halcyon boat
house, ... |
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And on the 1880 map is found Halycon Club - H. B. Scott 34.50A
[Hartwell Bryan Scott]
(the plat map shows a square balck dot which indicates a residence.) |
1898 Halycon is not marked as such on the plat map but newspaper clips
refer to int into the early 1900's with R. A. Edwards & R. E. Edwards names
attached to it. It is simpoly marked "H B Scott" |
/td> |
Mr. M. H. Scott, of Danville, III., ...
In 1825, he came to Lake Maxenkuckee, and built the first house that ever graced the
shores of Lake Maxenkuckee, or in fact the first house seen in this section. He erected
four houses for the Indians upon the very grounds where the Edwards’ cottage now stands,
known as “Halcyon Villa.” They were built for the Indians of round logs each house
containing one large room... Jul 23, 1897, Culver Herald.
The photo was listed as Scott's boat house - and labled as about 1910
but by what now has surfaced this would be much earlier than that maybe the before
1890's into the 1880's and before.
Note the appearance of what is to be a creek inlet/outlet in the lower right hand corner
of the Scott's boathouse photo below which is liste on all the old plat maps as
Aubbeenaubee creek and now refered o as "Curtis Ditch", it would be interesting to
find out when and what the creek was re-named.
The Halcyon Club was noted on the 1880 plat map for Lake Maxinkuckee. and the property
was owend by H. B. Scott.the numbers read if interperted right of 34.50 acres of land |
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The Everman's 1900 biolgraphical survey puts the Edwards Boat house in the same
approximate area as the Scotts boat house. |
The area would included several of today's cottages - from the Aubbeenaubee creek both
north and south. And to the east which would also included the property to the east of
E. shore drive a.k.a. St. rd. 117 which is the present Maxinkuckee Golf club grounds.
Recently some photos of the Halcyon Villa, Hayclon club Halcyon boat house has come to
light - and the hill side where the W. O. Osborn cottage stood also owned by Thomas
Spiece, John R. Bernerno and now sub-divided into two parcels
(
1680 E. shore
and
Bernerno Lot) today has
the words "Halcyon Villa" inscribe upon it. By the pictures it looks as if the
actual boathouse stood on what is the Ball property - and directly on the lakefront edge - -
could the cottage of been rolled backwards more?
On 19 March 2011 Marc Lafayette wrote: "Here are 4 of the images, I have more but these
show the main buildings and structures. The cottage has a flag flying which reads "Halcyon
Villa" (visible in other photos) and the boat house says "Halcyon Boat Club" in the crest
above the door. The other photos are of sailing, boats & crew all with "Halcyon" markings
I purchased the photos at auction for my own historical society. There was a farm, with a
boathouse, in my home town called "Halcyon Farms." I thought it was this farm and
I was mistaken. Now I need to get the images home to Indiana and into the hands of someone
who will preserve them. I plan to sell the photos, probably on eBay, but would give
you the opportunity to make an offer on them if you wish. The main 4 images are at least
8x10 in a large oak frame the other 3 are slightly smaller and unframed".
The larger images can be viewed by clinking on the hyperlink below in the description which
was provided by Marc of each photo, - no more really needs to be said except that is it my
believe that the cottage stood to the north of the Aubbeenaubee creek at the bottom of the
hill of the now John R. Bernerno property as you do not see any evidience of the creek as
made mention in McDonald's descriptive location of the Halcyon Villa in photo number 3 below.
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001 - Halcyon Villa Hill with the steam launch "Nadjy" |
002 - Halcyon Villa taken from the dock, the flag reads "Halcyon" |
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003 - Halcyon Villa taken from the hill, the words "Halcyon Villa" written on the side
of the hill is reflected in the upstairs window |
004 - View of Lake Maxinkuckee from the hill with the Halcyon Villa dock and the
steam launch visible |
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005 - Halcyon Boat Club from the water |
005b - close up of the people sitting at the boat house |
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005c - close up of the symbols on the roof peaks, a fish with a fork stuck through it
and the Halcyon Boat Club crest with an anchor across a fish
Julie Hendricks wrote: Julie wirtes of the
1780 East Shore Drive Ours is
still the original 1884 Queen Anne on the lakeside half, but the back half was
constructed in the 1960s by Rodney Todd (young local architect) and so it's very
different, mid-century vmodern style. The old boathouse that had been pulled here by
ox cart to add an indoor kitchen to the house sat right on the ground and had been
eaten away by termites….. I was about 15 when the new part was added. Just had to
replace most of the exterior siding. Our fear is that anyone would tear the house
down in a minute - yet the gable in front (by the lake) always had the fish with a
fork symbols that must have come rom the old Halcyon Boat Club! We still have the
fish - in need of repair to one fork! I never knew their origin until I saw the
pics you posted of the Ball Cottage.
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006 - Boat from the Halcyon Club |
007 - another view of the boat showing four men dressed in uniforms
each hat bears the name "Halcyon" |
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007b - close up of two of the mento show their uniforms |
Marc done a beautiful job of taking digital images off the original prints and enlarging
several for a close up view to show etails, and I done some more clean up on them; maybe
some would prefer not to have them cleaned up more but there was alot of black age
spots on them. I have kept a set of the digital images as sent to me by Marc and put them
on to CD for preservation.
as Mark states: "So those are the seven images. Hope they make you as excited as the day I
first saw them. I thought it was an amazing unknown piece of my community's history. I
found the first 4, then asked if there could possibly be more - they let me crawl around
in their attic, where I found the last 3. I live in Grosse Ile, Michigan. It is an island
on the Detroit River at the mouth of Lake Erie. The Halcyon here was a farm on the east
side of the island, it was on the water and it had a boathouse. About the only thing left
of it today is a street which retains the name. The house where I found it was less than
2 miles from the location of the farm. As my luck would have it, the more I looked at the
images, the more it did not look like Grosse Ile. I have researched it for almost 2 years
now... that led me finally to your website. I am glad that they have found there way home."
Thank you very much Marc for sharing these very rare photos of an era gone by.
There are 2 black dots I made on the map below - one is H. B. Scott and the other is M.
H. Scott.
In comparison - it would seem that this is the one and same cottage -
with the over hang being given supports Also note that the roof design for the over
hang bears the same semblance it would seem that the chimney is in the same approximate
area also and the cottage has been added onto and expanded to make larger. |
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More views of the Ball cottage (1746 E Shore) at base of Halycon Hill and the creek -
wider views to include the landscape around it. a This is the area where the Haycon club
was located is annotated as 'Edwards boathouse' on the 1900 lake maxinkuckee biological
Survey map done by the Everman crew.
1897 - Jul 9 Mr. Edwards and family of Peru. Ind.. have moved into their beautiful
cottage at “Halcyon Villa"
1898 |
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Wm. Van Shoiack Plat
1900 -
Richard A. Edwards
Boathouse
1900 - Sep 7/8 - Lot for 100x100 Southeast. side, between Edwards’ and
Mitchell's cottages. Inquire of H. A. Wheeler, Shady Bluff, east side
1901 Aug 30 - A. R. Edwards will close Halcyon vila and return with his family to Peru
to-day
1904 Aug 4 Mr. and Mrs. A. R. Edwards, of Peru, have opened Halcyon Villa for the
remainder of the season
1904 - Sep 8 - Contracters Cline and Foss are building a 20x35 ft. boat house for
R. A. Edwards.
1908 |
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1905 - Jul 6 - Mr. and Mrs Richard Edwards of Peru, are spending the season at
Halcyon Vila
1908 - R. A. Edwards
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The "boathouse" whether refered to as as Scotts, Halycon or Edwards from all
photo views and placement on the 1900 biological survey map sat on the southwest
side of Aub-bee-naub-bee creek on what is today the Ball property and remained
on that property when it was re-divided using the creek as the "property line" for
the North end of the Ball cottage
(1746 E Shore) and the south side of
Halycon Villa and the North portion which became
1680 East Shore drive.
By the 1922 map all indications is that H. B. Scott (Hartwell bryan Scott) sold all of
Halycon Villa proeprty to R. A. Edwards (Richard Arthur Edwards) and it was after 1922
R. A. Edwards sold the south portion of Halycaon Villa
which was divided by
Aub-bee-naub-bee creek
to an unknown person as of yet and R. A. Edwards (Richard Arthur Edwards) retaining
the North portion building possibly a new cottage on top of the hill which was still
refered to as "Halycon Villa" in many early news quips in the Culver Citizen into the
1920's. To the south is labled W. B. Sarber
1766 E Shore and it could of
been a part of the Halycon property |
1680 E. Shore Dr. Index