Menu
Valentine House tour to benefit clocks project
A tour of the Valentine House at 733 E. Washington St. in Greencastle on Saturday, June 13 will serve as a fundraiser for the Heritage Preservation Society of Putnam County.
The tour is scheduled for 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The Queen Anne Victorian was recently renovated after a long history beginning in 1894 and including stints as an apartment house and bed and breakfast.
After being unoccupied for a period of time, the main building, summer kitchen, barn and yard were in dire need of attention and repair. When a couple new to town purchased the property in 2013, there was no working plumbing or heat, the electric was outdated, and the roof leaked. They gutted parts of the house as necessary back to the old rafters and beams and then rebuilt, adding back a few new walls in the process.
The owners are opening their newly rehabilitated home to the public in order to raise awareness and funds for the restoration of the clocks in the Putnam County Courthouse in downtown Greencastle.
Originally the plan for the historic courthouse included two clocks, one each on the north and south faces. For many years there were simply windows as placeholders. At present, there is only a timepiece on one side and a vent in the other.
The current clock requires manual maintenance. Whenever an adjustment is needed, septuagenarian Mike Hecko climbs many stairs to access the mechanism that he engineered and for the past 15 years has kept running both literally and monetarily whenever necessary. One estimate puts the cost of two new self-setting, backlit timekeepers at $20,000.
Admission to the Valentine House tour is $10 for adults and $5 for children 12 years old and younger. All proceeds will go toward the courthouse clocks.
Refreshments will be available for sale, with seating provided in the garden and covered porches.
Parking will be available across the street at the Therese Cunningham State Farm Insurance Agency at 802 E. Washington St. The lot has entrances on both Wood and Washington streets.
In addition, at Dairy Castle two doors down, for every canceled tour ticket presented with purchase that day a $1 contribution will be made to the effort to restore the clocks.
The Valentine House was built as a city residence for William Milford Houck and his wife Emma Pence, who also owned a working farm in Washington Township.
Many of the key components characteristic of the rarified Queen Anne architectural style popular in the late-19th century are incorporated here. Evident examples of these attributes are the tower, gingerbread, patterned shingles, stained glass, balcony and extensive porch.
The home also features tracery leaded windows and intricate parquet flooring detail. In a finesse of craftsmanship, the turret chamber displays wood and glass shaped to follow the curve of the room.
Jesse W. Weik, the celebrated author who collaborated on the first authorized biography of Abraham Lincoln, was a contemporary and neighbor of the original owners. He wrote in his book "Weik's History of Putnam County, Indiana," in 1910 that "although Mr. Houck has a beautiful country home, he resides in Greencastle, owning one of the attractive residences of this city, at No. 733 East Washington Street, which is equipped with all up-to-date appliances and tastily arranged, and here the many friends of the family frequently gather, always finding an old-time hospitality and good cheer unstintingly dispensed."