Lake Maxinkuckee Its Intrigue History & Genealogy Culver, Marshall, Indiana

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:
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, ...


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


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.



001 - Halcyon Villa Hill with the steam launch "Nadjy"
002 - Halcyon Villa taken from the dock, the flag reads "Halcyon"
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
005 - Halcyon Boat Club from the water
005b - close up of the people sitting at the boat house
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.
006 - Boat from the Halcyon Club
007 - another view of the boat showing four men dressed in uniforms each hat bears the name "Halcyon"
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.


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


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


1905 - Jul 6 - Mr. and Mrs Richard Edwards of Peru, are spending the season at Halcyon Vila

1908 - R. A. Edwards

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


A drawing done by Marie (Shirk) Edwards showa the "Ball Cottage" aka "Ship House" (Mrs. Richard Egbert)


1680 E. Shore Dr. Index