Bungalow District Forrest Place - History and Genealogy of Lake Maxinkuckee

Bungalow District Forest Place

Forest Place, historically a short street that extended between Lake Shore Drive and College Avenue, contains a concentration of Bungalow style houses .

The houses of Forest Place are of the Bungalow style, one of the most popular American house styles of the twentieth century. The Bungalow, developed from the Craftsman style, was a favorite type nationwide from about 1910 until about 1930. A gauge of its popularity is that it virtually dominated the Sears home catalog in the 1920s. Contractors' publications of the era that promoted the house type included Bungalow Magazine and Craftsman Magazine

For the purposes of the resource count, there are 14 contributing buildings in the historic district. There are no noncontributing resources

Built between about 1917 and 1922, the Forest Place Bungalows are small houses, and are one to one-and-a-half stories in height. There are three basic types:

All are wood frame structures. Siding is wood shingles, clapboards, or synthetic siding. Nearly all of the houses have front porches. These are open, partially enclosed, or enclosed.

Porches are wood, brick, cobblestone, concrete block, or stucco

A few of the houses have front dormer windows.

The houses on the south end of the east side of the street, and the houses on the west side of the street, are on lots that are elevated one to two feet above the street level. Cobblestone retaining walls on both sides unify the houses and add to the character of the street.

In several cases, the front porches of these houses have been enclosed, and synthetic siding installed over the original.

Unpaved alleys to the west and east of Forest Place extend between Lake Shore Drive and College Avenue. These are lined with small, wood frame garages

The open land to the east of the Toner Avenue commercial district was owned the railroad company, as was the park and beach along the lakeshore just to the south. Toner Avenue hillside overlooked the lake, and was a popular picnic spot for tourists. After it cut back on Sunday excursions to Culver in the early years of the twentieth century, the railroad company sought to divest itself of the hillside. In 1916, the company sold the land to Samuel Medbourn, a local businessman, who platted it as Medbourn's First Addition to the Town of Culver The neighborhood was platted in 1916 by Samuel Medbourn, a leading local businessman

1915 - May 6 - S. E. Medbourn and S. J. Lenon have bought the Vandalia Park tract of nine acres and will plat it into about 40 lots

1915 - Jun 23 Medbourn and Lenon received the deed on Moday for the Vandalia Park tract, and yesterday had surveyors platting it into lots.

1915 - Sep 2 - Medbourn & Lenon are having the timber thinned out on the Vandalia Park addition preparatroy to laying out the ground into lots, blacks and streets.

The lots along Helen Street, as Forest Place was then called after one of Medbourn's daughters, sold quickly, between 1917 and 1921. Within a short period of time, single family houses of the Bungalow style were erected on the lots. Albert Stahl, a local builder, is said to have constructed the majority of the homes between about 1917 and 1922.

All of the Bungalow style, the houses are highly cohesive in character. The historic district is also important as a representation of the growth of the middle class housing market in the early twentieth century as Culver Military Academy expanded. Most of the houses were originally occupied by families of Academy faculty or local business owners

1916 - Nov 16 - New Houses

Howard Mikesell has let the contract for a bungalow to Buckheister & Keen. Work woll gegin at once and he expects to have it completed by Feb. 1

1917 - March 8 - Archie Blanchard will begin his house in Vandalia Park at once and will work on it as he was leisure, but expects to get it far enough along o move into it as soon as warm weather comes. He has already built his garage.

1917 - Mar 29 - A. B. Holt and Archie Blanchard moved into their new homes in Vandalia Park last week

1917 - Sep 5 - Arthur FIshburn has bought a lot in Vandalia Park next north of D. W. Marks' ne bungalow and expects to put up a home for himself there this fall

1919 - Mar 19 - Vandalia Park Lots

1919 - Oct 1 - Lt. L. R. Kellam has bought the lot next north, to the Marks bungalow in which he was been lining in Vandalia Park, and expects to build in the spring,

1921 - Feb 22 - work has begun on Lieutenant Kellam's new bunaglow in Vandalia Park

1921 - Aug. 10 - Lt. Kellam will move into his new bungalow in Vandalia Park next week. The boulder porch is one of the unique and impressive features of the house.

1922 - Mar 15 - Archie Blanchard will begin work at once on a six room bungalow for Raymond Mikesell at the north end of Helen street in Vandalia Park

1922 - Sep 6 - CHarles Monninger has bought Mrs. Capron's lot on Helen street, Vandalia Park Addition and will build a six-room bungalow that will be a still further attraction to that already pretty street. The contract will be let tommorrow and work will begin at once.

1922 Sep 13 Archie Blanchard has the contact for the Monninger bungalow in the Vandalia Park addition.

1922, Nov 8 - Petitions for three street lights in the Vandalia Park addition have been files with the town board.

1923, Mar 14 - Raymond Mikesell has sold the bingalow which he built last year in the Vandalia Park addition to Lieut Leland for $6000. Mr. Mikesell owns he lot adjoining on the south and will at once begin the building of another bungalow. Helen Street is fast becoming a "Faculty Row"

1923 - Mar 28 - Mikesell will Go West

Raymond Mikesell has abandoned his plan of building another bungalow on Vandalia Park hill, and will leave in June for the Pacific coast to look up the prospect of a new home and business location.
1923, Aug 23 - Raymond Mikesell is building a new bugalow on his lot on Helen Street

1923 - Oct 3 - Contractor Albert Stahl is this morning staking out the ground for a bungalow which Ernest Parr will erect on his lont in the Vandalia Park addition

1924 Mar 5 - W. R. Parish will probably have a new hardwood floor in their home on Helen street some time this summer. Definite plans have not yet been completed

1924 Mar 5 - Bert Grandy has about finished building a new cess poolt on the reat of his lot at the corner of Helen Street and Toner Avenue

1924 23 Jan Payment for paving Helen street $611.02

1926 Mar 3 - Street Name Changed

1925 Sep 9 - House Numbers on Helen Street

Name	Lot	House #
Mary Hatch Holt	6	418
Leroy & Velma Kellam	7	424
Daniel W Marks	8	430
Hillard W Walmer	9	436
Raymond R Mikesell	10	442
John Wolf etal	11	448
W. and A. E. Leland	12	454
James H & W Bishop	13	460
Benj F. Buffington	14	451
Charles Monniger	16	445
Earnest & Isabelle Parr	16	433
W. T. & G E Parrish	20	423
D.A. & C. E. Blanchard	20	417

1952 - Telelphone listings for Forrest Place

1960 - Telelphone listings for Forest Place

1974 - Telelphone listings for Forrest Place

1980 Telephone listings for Forrest Place

1988 Telephone listings for Forrest Place

1998 Telephone listings for Forrest Place

Title: Forest Place Historic District
National Register Information System ID: 00000671
Applicable Criteria: ARCHITECTURE/ENGINEERING
Architectural Styles: BUNGALOW/CRAFTSMAN
Architects: Stahl, Albert Burns, David
Areas Of Significance: ARCHITECTURE
Periods Of Significance: 1900-1924; 1925-1949
Resource Type: DISTRICT
Related Collections: National Register of Historic Places Collection
Resource Format: pdf
File Size (bytes): 2228031
Date Published: 6/15/2000
Parks: National Register of Historic Places
Locations:

The Bungalow district comprises Lots 6-13 and Lots 15-21 of Samuel E. Medbourn's First Addition to of Culver David Burns did not do all the stone work on the retaining walls; it is known that he done the Osborn house at 443 Forest Place in the 1980's; the stone work done at 445 Forest Place and on the east corner of Forest Place and Lakeshore Dr. was done by Mickey McFarland in the 1990's.

Just who done the earlier stone work is unknown - but Charlie Asper was a known stone mason of that era.

	Lot # 3 - 409 Forest Pl. - Vacant Lot - Parking Lot of 700 Lakeshore 1936 - Jul 22 - Schweidler to Move Buffington Bungalow Work has started removing the trees from the corner of Lake Shore Drive and Forest Place prepartory to moving the Buffington house to the back of the lot. The property has been purchaed by Joe Schweidler. The house will be faced on Forrest Place, will be raised and a basement placed under it. A furnace will be installed, a new roof built, and the interior and exertior of the house refinished. There is a possiblity that Mr. Schweidler will extend the entry way to the Lake Shore Garage to the corner. House sat on the North end of lot next to alley was moved in 1972 When the Gas station burnt here is a picture of it during the fire.
1		Lot # 6 - 416 The house at 415 Forest Place is also a front-gabled Bungalow. Sided in wood shingles, it is similar in detailing to others of its type, but has a side, incised porch instead of the more common front porch
2			Lot # 7 - 424 front-gabled type 424 Forest Place is intact, with wood siding and a stuccoed front porch. Distinctive in this house are the paired, Craftsman style wood posts atop stuccoed porch piers. The house was built in 1920 Remodeled and altered in 2014-15 it is now 2' taller than original designed was.
3		Lot # 8 - 430 hipped roof type 430 Forest Place is a one-story house with a front, incised porch. The porch wall is rusticated concrete block. Battered wood posts atop four concrete block piers support the porch roof. The house is three bays wide with the entry in the center bay. Windows are double hung wood, with one light in each sash. This is a wood frame house with narrow vinyl siding.
4		Lot # 9 - 436
5		Lot # 10 - 442 - Stahl-Keller House Among residents of Forest Place have been Albert Stahl, who built the house at 442 Forest Place for himself. He sold it later, and Herbert and Helen Keller purchased it in 1926. Keller taught Spanish at Culver Military Academy and wrote the music for a popular song, "Maxinkuckee Moon" (1927). Keller's widow transferred the house to her daughter Jeanne Epley in 1963. Epley's son now lives there
6		Lot # 11 - 448
7		Lot # 12 - 450 front-gabled type Colonel Wallace Leland of the Culver Military Academy faculty lived in the house after 1926. Later, C.W. and Jeanne Epley lived there.
8		Lot # 13 - 460 Crabb-Bishop House Lemuel and Lulu Crabb were the first owners of this house, but sold soon after it to live next door to their furniture store on Main Street. Colonel James Bishop, a member of the history department faculty at Culver Military Academy lived in the house for much of the 1920s
vacant lot	Lot # 14 -
9		Lot # 15- 451 This house has a hipped roof dormer window on the front slope of the roof. Porch piers and wall are cobblestone. Windows are double hung wood, with one light in each sash. Siding is narrow vinyl siding.
10		Lot # 16 & N1/2 LOT 17 - 445 The house is an outstanding example of a front-gabled Bungalow. It is one-and-a-half stories in height and has wood shingle siding. The one-story front porch extends the width of the main facade and has a front-gabled roof. The porch has cobblestone end piers with a low cobblestone wall between. The main façade is three bays wide with the entry in the center. There is a window in the front gable. Windows are double hung wood, with multi-light upper sash and single pane lower sash. The roof has wide eaves with knee braces. This was a rental that was occupied by a number of Academy instructors over the years
11		Lot # 18 & S1/2 LOT 17 - 433 Side-gabled Bungalow. The house now has wide aluminum siding. Ernest and Isabel Parr were original owners of the house. The widowed Mrs. Parr sold it to Robert and Dorothy Osborn in 1944. The Osborns, who still occupy the house, owned the Osborn Seed Company in Burr Oak
12		Lot #19 - 431 Robinson House front-gabled type This is the only brick-faced Bungalow. 1928 0 Aug. 29 - S. E, Medbourn Building Winter Home - S. E> Medbourne has started the work on a brick-faced bungalow on the corner of forest Place and Pearl Street. A. A. Keen has charge of the job. It is undestood that this will be t he jome of Mr. and Mrs. Medbourn - Citizen. 1936 - 12 Aug. - Harry E. and Faye Medbourn to Miles R. Robinson - Lot 19 Medourn's Add. Culver W. D. $1.00 1936-? M.R. Robinson, owner of the local newspaper, the Culver Citizen, lived here. Lavinia Wesson (Mrs Oscar) had the Porch over the stairs and sidewalk built on some time between 1982 and 2005; the Wesson's bought the house when they retired and sold the Culver Vetineary to Georgetta Samuelson
13		Lot # 20 - 423 - Mikesell House This is the most intact of these. It is a one-and-a-half story dwelling with wood shingle siding. A wide dormer with eight small windows extends nearly the width of the front slope of the roof. The incised front porch has been enclosed. The main façade is three bays wide, with the entry in the center. Windows are grouped, and have wood, double hung sash. The multi-light upper sash of these windows is divided vertically Howard and Mary Mikesell were original owners of the house at 423 Forest Place. Mikesell was co-manager of the filling station formerly located on the northwest corner of Main and Jefferson streets In 1962 - W. T. Parish was residing in the house
14		Lot # 20 - 417 The house is a side-gabled Bungalow. Has an added brick porch base, and added vertical board siding on the remainder of the structure The Teach family lived in it in 1962; he was an instructor at the Academy

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

Bungalow District Forest Place