Homes & Lifestyles April 2018

$2.95 • April 2018 • Volume 14, No. 4

of South-Central Indiana

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Bike City

Bloomington and bikes have had a long love affair

Reboot House Empty Nesters thrive in home renovation

View past issues at homesandlifestylesmagazine.com

6 Cabin Paradise 14 Bike City 22 Reading Leaves

14

STORY: 28 COVER Small Living

36 Painterly Photographs 42 Artist Gallery 46 Reboot House

36

54 Set in Stone 62 Travel: Lasting Impression Decadent Dark 66 Recipe: Chocolate Peanut Butter Tart $2.95 • April 2018 • Volume 14, No. 4

of South-Central Indiana

homesandlifestylesmagazine.com

Bike City

Bloomington and bikes have had a long love affair

Reboot House Empty Nesters thrive in home renovation

54

ON OUR COVER: Honey on the Rock is a unique tiny home built with love and care by Carpenter Owl. Find out more on page 28. Photo courtesy Carpenter Owl. PUBLISHER Cory Bollinger

Don’t miss an issue of Homes & Lifestyles! $15 (plus (annual subscription) tax) 6 Issues visit us online at homesandlifestylesmagazine.com or mail subscription to: SUBSCRIPTIONS, Homes & Lifestyles 1900 South Walnut Street, P.O. Box 909 Bloomington, IN 47402 2 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • April 2018

ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Laurie Ragle MARKETING DIRECTOR Shaylan Owen EDITORIAL COORDINATOR Jackie Sheckler Finch CONTENT COORDINATOR & LAYOUT AND DESIGN Andrew Lehman

© 2018 Schurz Communications, Inc. HOMES & LIFESTYLES OF SOUTH-CENTRAL INDIANA is distributed bimonthly on a subscription basis. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BY COPYRIGHT. Prices, specials and descriptions are accurate as of the time of publishing. This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the express written consent of the publisher. Advertising information has been provided by advertisers. Schurz Communications, Inc. does not make any representations as to opinions and facts contained herein. All terms and conditions are subject to change. The cover, cover design, format, content and layout of this publication are trademarks of Schurz Communications, Inc.

WRITERS Jackie Sheckler Finch, Pete DiPrimio, Alexandra M. Lynch, Brooke McCluskey, Kathy Jonas, Joel Pierson, Michelle Crowe

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PHOTOGRAPHY Chris Howell, David Snodgress, Jeremy Hogan, Rich Janzaruk

Contact Jackie Sheckler Finch at JackieSFinch@gmail.com or Andrew Lehman at (812) 331-4276

Contact Laurie Ragle at (812) 331-4291 EDITORIAL QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS:

April 2018 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • 3

Homes & Lifestyles

Contributors Jackie Sheckler Finch became a Hoosier more than 25 years ago when she moved to Indiana from Massachusetts for a newspaper job. She covered city government and other areas for The Herald-Times until leaving to become a full-time freelance writer. Editor of Homes & Lifestyles since its inception in 2004, Jackie is also an award-winning travel writer and author of 20 travel books. She was named the Mark Twain Travel Writer of the Year a record six times. Jackie enjoys finding the fascinating people and places that wait over the hill and around the next bend.

Pete DiPrimio is a Bloomington transplant who was born near Pittsburgh. His favorite part about writing for Homes & Lifestyles is meeting the various homeowners and personalities. He’s an award-winning sports columnist who has written three books on IU sports, plus 21 children’s books on topics that include Tom Brady, Eli Manning, Ancient Rome, Ancient Sparta and more. In 2016 he was inducted into the Indiana Sportswriters and Sportscasters Hall of Fame, which he says reflects the fact that he covered his first sporting event shortly after Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden.

A California kid for his childhood years, Jeremy Hogan came to Indiana in 1997 after a series of newspaper internships that spanned the country. He first picked up a camera as a boy to snap pictures of his friends, which led to a journalism career and a Pulitzer Prize nomination. Jeremy shoots photos and videos for The HeraldTimes and produces his own documentary films.

4 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • April 2018

Chris Howell has been a full time senior photojournalist for Hoosier Times publications since 1998. Born and raised in Bloomfield, Chris’ passion is documenting the everyday lives of people in local communities and wherever his travels take him. Away from work, Chris enjoys spending time with family and friends, playing softball and grilling in the summertime.

Andrew Lehman is the content coordinator and designer for Homes & Lifestyles. He assists the editor, develops layouts and guides the production process—and does the same for several other magazines published by Hoosier Times.

He has a background in graphic design, but enjoys painting in his free time at his Bloomington home. Free time is at a premium though, as he and his wife are proud parents of two young children.

Alexandra M. Lynch thoroughly enjoys writing for Homes & Lifestyles because she gets to meet wonderful people and see fascinating homes.

Alexandra has been a writer most of her career, mostly newsletters and magazines. Now, in retirement, she finds the H&L gig suits her fine. In her leisure time, she likes to travel and take photos.

Joel Pierson has been a resident of Bloomington for almost two decades and is still finding things to love about the area. In addition to writing for Homes & Lifestyles, he is a regular contributor to The HeraldTimes. His interests include theater, writing, editing and audio production. He is the author of seven books, all published locally.

A lifelong Hoosier, Shaylan Owen grew up near rural Delphi. He has a background in fine arts, photography and graphic design and is the marketing director for Hoosier Times. Shaylan is a selfdescribed food nerd who has created and photographed dozens of recipes for Homes & Lifestyles since April 2009. When not working, he enjoys cooking, reading, running, traveling and the outdoors.

David Snodgress was born and raised in Bloomington. He has journalism and political science degrees from Indiana University and a master’s degree in journalism from Ohio University. He recently retired from working as the photography manager at The HeraldTimes. He shares a log home with his wife and three children and can often be found camping and canoeing.

Brooke McCluskey is a freelance writer for Homes & Lifestyles. In her free time, she is renovating a fixer-upper home in rural Bloomington with her husband. They have two children, a dog, a cat, a snake and many woodland friends.

Growing up in Spencer, Indiana, is a point of pride for Michelle Crowe, who is pretty sure no place on earth can compare with the sincerity of Southern Indiana.

A bookworm from birth, its fitting that her current places of employment is a library. When she is not working, or writing for Homes & Lifestyles, you might find her over-photographing her children's activities, teaching Sunday School at Arlington United Methodist Church or, of course, with her nose happily stuck in a book.

Homes & Lifestyles

From the Editor Comments I picked up a copy of December "Homes & Lifestyles" at Westbury Antiques. My wife Joella has a booth there. I most enjoyed “From the Editor.” Being born in ’43, I remember and love those days. I also got a small brown bag of candy and maybe an apple. I am sending you a poem I wrote called “Winter.” Hope you like it and it brings back more old memories.

— Joe Grubb "Winter" Dark blue skies and naked trees their branches are all bare Blowing winds that bite your face and light snow in the air All the geese have flown south the hound has his heavy coat Ice on the lake has started to form and freeze around the boat It’s the time of the year that some folks say I hate this cold and snow And I can’t wait ‘til it warms up so I can see it go The old folks didn’t mind it they took it all in stride They had gotten ready for old man winter’s ride They had worked all summer long to take care of their needs They tilled the earth and planted things and hoed and pulled the weeds They picked the apples and the pears the peaches plums and cherries They made jars and jars of jelly from the wild blackberries They canned the corn and green beans had turnips in the ground Covered with a blanket of straw so the freeze don’t turn ‘em brown Bushels of potatoes and onions hung to dry There was always plenty in case a friend dropped by Hams hung in the smokehouse chickens in the pen Enough for Sunday dinner And brown eggs now and then Ricks of wood stacked on the porch in case of lots of snow And if you needed some you hadn’t far to go Paper stuffed in window cracks and seals around the doors Any extra rugs they had rolled out across the floors Now’s the time to just sit back with feet propped to the heat And wait for Grandma to say “come on, it’s time to eat”

A

rriving home from a trip, I saw the message light blinking on my telephone answering machine.

Pushing it, I heard an unmistakable voice.

He didn’t even have to give his name. I knew who was calling. I had never met the guy in person but I had enjoyed that distinctive voice for years.

“Hey, I hear you want some comments from me,” the voice said. “Well, here I am.

Give me a call.”

Daniel Stern left a few more friendly words along with his phone number.

That was nine years ago. I was doing a story about the 30th anniversary of the film “Breaking Away.” As part of the story, I tried to track down the four main stars – Dennis Christopher, Jackie Earle Haley, Daniel Stern and Dennis Quaid.

Jackie Earle Haley was nowhere to be found. I read that he struggled as an actor in his post-teen years and ended up working as a limo driver and pizza delivery guy to make ends meet. But he has been in several recent movies. Despite not having the long hair from “Breaking Away,” I recognized a bald sinister Jackie Earle Haley in the 2017 movie “Dark Tower.”

Dennis Quaid didn’t return my phone calls, I’m sorry to say. But Dennis Christopher and Daniel Stern did and they both had happy memories of their time in Bloomington.

For Daniel Stern, who played the tall gangly cynical Cyril, it was his first movie.

The 20-year-old had just sold all his furniture to pay his rent when he got the call from director Peter Yates to appear in the new movie.

“I love that movie,” Daniel said when I talked with him. “The longevity of it is amazing. I really didn’t think about the success of it at the time, but the very first time we saw a screening, the audience just went ape. People were leaping out of their seat and applauding at the end.”

Daniel went on to appear in many popular movies, including “Home Alone” and “City Slickers.” He also did my favorite TV show—as the narrator voice of the adult Kevin Arnold in the hit TV show “The Wonder Years” from 1988 to 1993. An artist specializing in bronze sculpture, Daniel is still acting, most recently in the 2017 TV series “Love.”

Dennis Christopher, who was 24 at the time, played the central character of Dave Stohler whose obsession with Italian bike racing unnerves his car-salesman father.

When I talked with him, Dennis recalled one memorable scene where Dave Stohler is following behind a Cinzano semi-truck on Ind. 37.

“That was a pretty hair-raising ride because that bike weighs about as much as a beer pretzel and you get caught up in the draft of the semi and you sort of get dragged along,” he said. “The best I could do was not make it look like sheer terror on my face.”

Dennis still performs in movies, TV and theater. He fell victim to Pennywise the clown in the original spooky “It” and was recently in “Django Unchained.”

During their time in Bloomington, Daniel said the cast stayed in “some funky little motel with a pool… I mostly loved being in Bloomington and the beauty of it. It was a gorgeous place and the people were so great.”

Produced over six weeks with a modest budget of $2.4 million, “Breaking Away” was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning the 1979 Oscar for best screenplay. “It’s a great family movie,” Daniel said. “I have many friends now who are introducing it to their children. It’s timeless.”

Hope you enjoy our feature about “Breaking Away,” the Little 500 and Bloomington’s love affair with bicycling.

Have something to say?

Maybe it’s a comment about a home or a recipe. Whatever you’d like to share, we want to hear, so drop us a line!

Letters c/o Homes & Lifestyles Or e-mail JackieSFinch@gmail.com P.O. Box 909 • Bloomington, IN 47402

April 2018 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • 5

6 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • April 2018

Cabin Paradise A second chance to build a dream cabin

By Pete DiPrimio Photos by Jeremy Hogan

April 2018 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • 7

D

anielle Thomas has found her paradise.

Better yet, she lives in it.

Welcome to cabin living in the 21st century. In this case, it fulfills Danielle’s life-long yearning to live like few others. It’s a 3,000-square-foot testament to outdoor wonder.

Trees are everywhere. A waterfall flows from a creek and down a ravine.

Don’t forget the antique hickory rocker.

Passion, you see, has its privileges.

“As a kid growing up,” Danielle says, “I always wanted to live in a log cabin. I don’t like it, when you go into a housing addition, that every house looks the same.”

Cabins in general, this one in particular, do not.

“This has a totally different feel,” Danielle says. “I like the outdoorsy look. That’s me. That’s who I am. Even when I was a kid, I said, ‘I will have a log cabin.’”

Mission accomplished, and then some.

“My mom always had antiques in the house.

I’d go with her to antique shops. I wanted antiques in my place. My mom got an old hickory rocker. I told her to never get rid of it. I want it for my cabin.”

And so she has.

“It’s unique. It’s different. It goes along with me.”

By day, Danielle works at Vectren. The rest of the time, when she’s not working out (she’s a fitness enthusiast), she’s at the cabin.

“I’m always working in my yard, on the house or detailing cars,” she says.

Detailing cars?

Passion for cars

“That’s my passion,” she says. “I love it. I like to see the result at the end. It’s like, ‘Wow, that can’t be my car, but it is.’”

That includes the first car she ever owned, a 1989 Suzuki Sidekick.

“I drive it some, but only on sunny days,” she says. “It’s my precious little toy.”

Speaking of “toys,” Danielle has plenty of them—six cars, a four-wheeler and a motorcycle—because why not?

“I have too many toys,” she says.

Danielle isn’t kidding. She stores them in a 40-foot-by-60-foot pole barn near the cabin,

8 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • April 2018

April 2018 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • 9

10 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • April 2018

and “it’s not big enough.”

“I should have built an 80-by-80 or 60-by-100 barn,” she says.

This is actually Danielle’s second cabin. The first one was taken up by I-69 construction.

So, she built a new one. There were the inevitable construction glitches, which Danielle resolved with the help of her parents “It’s all good now,” she says.

Danielle bought her first cabin in September of 2005 knowing, “that someday the I-69 project could possibly buy me out, but I thought it wouldn’t be in my lifetime.”

She thought wrong.

In December of 2005, a firm out of Pennsylvania arrived to do an archeological study and soil testing to make sure the land was suitable to put in an interchange.

It started As a kid growing with a couple of five-gallon up I always bucket holes in wanted to live in her back yard. a log cabin. I don’t Soon the holes like it, when you got bigger. go into a housing Sifting through the soil turned addition, that up artifacts. every house looks “They were there for a the same. week, ” Danielle -Danielle Thomas said. “I was wondering what was going on. They told me they were looking for the lost town of Wayport.”

Wayport became a small town in 1851, and hit its peak from 1877 to 1879 with a post office, a blacksmith shop and a general store. It’s gone now, but the memory remains.

And then it was more than memories.

“It got to the point where they were digging a big old hole in the back,” Danielle says. “They didn’t say anything about what they found.”

Seven years later, in 2012, “They sent me a book of everything they had found.

It turns out Wayport was in my backyard.

Foundations were there. An underground

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April 2018 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • 11

12 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • April 2018

cellar was there. They found items from the 1800s. There was concern the area could be labeled as a historic site, and they couldn’t be an interchange there.”

Eventually, concern gave way to I-69 progress. The state bought Danielle’s cabin and all 2.57 acres. Eventually, Danielle was able to buy some of it back, then bought 2.8 acres from a neighbor to set up a new 5-acre opportunity.

She would have a new cabin, and it would have style.

Memories and family treasures

There is a 1,200-square-foot main level, a 1,200-square-foot finished basement and a 619-square-foot loft.

There’s also artwork courtesy of Danielle’s mother, Reba, an artist and crafts person.

Reba painted a mural on a wall that depicted bears, a lake, cabins and a canoe.

It was painted onto the drywall at the first cabin, then cut out and moved to the second. Three other murals that were painted to the dry wall in the original cabin are now in the new cabin.

And for those into unique images, Reba also painted onto an interior wall what looks like a window looking out at Danielle’s old cabin.

“She cut a hole in a wall,” Danielle says, “and inserted the painting in it. There is a light on top of the frame, and when you turn on the light, it has the effect of looking out

Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana

at the old cabin.”

As far as the practical, Danielle took an old Jack Daniels whiskey barrel and made it into a sink. Specifically, the barrel was used as the vanity and she installed a copper sink in it. She had some cedar trees cut down and used them as support beams.

Specifically, it’s the tree, and not a beam.

“It’s the actual tree with the nobs still in it,” Danielle says.

The cabin includes a stone fireplace with a mantle made from a 19th Century barn beam.

“It still has wooden pegs in it,” Danielle says.

She is fine with that, as she is with just about everything.

Cabin living, you see, has its rewards.

“It’s something I’m pretty proud of,” she says.

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April 2018 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • 13

14 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • April 2018

Bike City Bloomington and bikes have had long love affair Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of articles celebrating Monroe County’s Bicentennial. Look for more articles delving into the 200 years of local history throughout every 2018 issue of Homes & Lifestyles.

By Jackie Sheckler Finch

Photos by Chris Howell & David Snodgress Additional photos courtesy Steve Dodds

April 2018 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • 15

R

iding his bicycle in the beautiful Cayman Islands this winter, Steve Dodds was wearing a “Cutters” jersey. Cutters, of course, is the name of the winning hometown bike team in the 1979 Academy Award winning movie “Breaking Away.”

As often happen, strangers in faraway places recognize the name on the shirt and take a good guess as to where Steve lives.

“It’s amazing how many people know from the jersey that my home is in Bloomington, Indiana,” Steve says. “Not too long ago, I was in Cuba and was stopped and asked about Bloomington and the Little 500 because of my jersey.”

The popular Little 500 bike race and the movie about it have helped put Bloomington on the map as a “Bike City.”

Billed as “The World’s Greatest College Weekend,” the annual bike race takes place the third weekend in April at Indiana University’s Bill Armstrong Stadium. The date for this year’s event is April 20-21.

Modeled after the Indy 500, the largest collegiate bike race in America has riders

16 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • April 2018

compete in four-person teams around a quarter-mile cinder track. The men’s race is 200 laps or 50 miles and the women’s race is 100 laps or 25 miles.

A start

The story goes that back in 1950 then IU Foundation President Howard S. “Howdy” Wilcox was entertaining guests on his lawn one night when he saw three IU students racing each other around a dorm on their bicycles. The sight and the cheers from onlookers gave Howdy an idea.

Why not stage a bike race to help the Foundation raise scholarship funds for students? To turn his dream into reality, Howdy sought help from the Indy Motor Speedway where his father had once raced as a driver. It all came together in the spring of 1951 when an Indy 500 announcer called the action and bike riders pedaled away.

Not much has changed in the race in the more than half a century since the Little 500 started. “In so many ways, the Little 500 has remained the same, which

April 2018 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • 17

Steve Dodds, owner of The Bicycle Doctor, was a technical consultant and an "extra" in the Breaking Away movie. He continues to work closely with Little 500 racing teams, and bikes he has assembled have won 10 races. He has some memorabilia on the walls of his rural shop, including a print of a scene with him and the Cutters team, an autographed photo of Dennis Christopher and the quarry the boys swam in.

18 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • April 2018

is something that I think makes it truly special,” says Tara Vickers, director of the IU Student Foundation. “It’s amateur collegiate competition at its best.”

All riders are put on the same make and model of single-gear bicycles and tires to even the playing field. “We still race on a cinder track and we make the bar of entry extremely low to make the race as inclusive as possible to all undergraduate students,” Tara says.

“As long as teams put in the training, victory truly can be anyone’s on race day.”

The biggest change to the Little 500 was the addition of the women’s race in 1988, Tara says. “The women’s race is extremely competitive and so exciting.”

Over the years, the Little 500 has raised more than $2 million in student scholarships for undergraduate IU Bloomington students. “More broadly, the IU Student Foundation has a philanthropic impact on undergraduate IU students of around half a million dollars in scholarships and grants,” Tara says.

Growing up in Bloomington, Steve Dodds knows why the area is such a great attraction for cyclists. “The countryside around Bloomington is as good as its get,” he says, noting the beautiful rolling hills and open countryside.

Steve didn’t get his first bike until he was about 9 years old. “Bikes back in the day were a big investment,” he says. “When I got it, it was life changing.”

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Shortly thereafter, the new bike rider had an accident. “My bike needed repaired and there was no good shop in Bloomington at the time,” he says. “The rest is history—my family opened a bike shop in 1964.”

Steve worked in the family bike shop through high school. His parents sold the shop in 1971 to move

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April 2018 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • 19

20 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • April 2018

headquarters to Lexington, Kentucky.

“But there was no way I was leaving Bloomington for a number of reasons,” Steve says. “At the top of the list—my future wife lived near the bike shop.”

Steve continued to work with the new owner until 1974 when he opened his own company, The Bicycle Doctor. A few years later, a film company came to town scouting locations for a minor movie. Film folks also needed a local bike expert to provide technical support. They asked The Bicycle Doctor.

“I had a truck that I would drive around to do repairs,” he says. Steve also was a “Breaking Away” extra in the dramatic final race scene,

standing alongside the main actors.

He recalls that he was paid “hundreds and hundreds of dollars… enough to buy a super stereo system.”

His bike shop business has grown over the years, Steve says, as more and more people turn to cycling and the city provides more bike trails and programs for bike riders. A city-IU bike share program scheduled to start this spring will provide 150 rental bicycles that riders can pick up and drop off at bike racks across the city. The pool of bikes will also include a number of accessible units, such as tricycles, to accommodate a wide variety of users.

Having such a bike-friendly city is a big plus in helping draw visitors

to the area as well as students to Indiana University, Tara says. “I think IU offers the total package: A public research institution with top-notch academics and a fantastic campus life set in a beautiful college town with great outdoor recreation options, restaurants and more.”

Although riding a bike seems to be part of many people’s childhood memories, it is never too late to start, Steve adds. “With more bike trails in and around Bloomington, we are seeing even more grass root riders coming out. I try to ride every day. It’s good for my health both physically and mentally… It changes your day.

Any day is a good day on a bike.”

April 2018 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • 21

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Reading Leaves New tea shop is steeped in tradition

By Joel Pierson

Photos by Chris Howell

April 2018 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • 23

A

merica is the land of the coffee shop, but if your hot-beverage experience is limited to that end of the spectrum, you’re missing out on something that is well known throughout the world—the wonders of tea.

From England to Russia to China, tea is more popular than coffee by a ratio of as much as 3-to-1. Fortunately for the people of Bloomington, there’s a new tea shop in town that wants to lure you away from your expensive oversized frappu-latte-ccino-grande.

BloomingTea is the labor of love of Christian Frederickson and his wife Jenny, who have lived in town since 1987 and have enriched it with the computer business PC MAX and the eatery B-Town Diner. In July 2017, they leased a former residence on Kirkwood Avenue, just a half block west of Rogers, and opened up BloomingTea, a comfortable sit-down establishment with an impressive roster of more than 100 varieties of tea to choose from.

The property has, in its history, been an antiqueconsignment shop, a county office and an exercise studio.

The environment is ideal for the current business, with a homelike appeal, including couches and lounge chairs, spacious tables and hardwood floors.

Patrons can order loose-leaf tea by the ounce to take with them or get any blend served hot, iced or as a latte at the shop. Mr. Lipton and Mr. Tetley will not be found here, however. The made-to-order loose teas, sourced from around the world, are carefully steeped to maximize flavor. A detailed list (found in store and on their website) explains each option and points out some favorites.

24 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • April 2018

Growing pains

Any new business in town comes with a degree of uncertainty. One element BloomingTea has focused on is in-house activities and gatherings. A few introductory music performances have inspired crowds to come visit, and the plan is for weekly live music.

As for gatherings, the shop has hosted some afternoon teas, private parties and fundraisers. It features a meeting room that can be reserved for gatherings for just the cost of food and drink ordered. Over time, the Fredericksons hope to add game nights, outdoor activities and poetry slams.

Keeping more than 100 tea varieties in stock involves more than just a quick stop at the local store.

BloomingTea turned to the west for inspiration—all the way to Portland, Oregon—to a favorite establishment called Townshend’s. Two of their children live in Portland, and the shopkeepers were often out there visiting.

In doing his research, Christian learned that Townshend’s also had a very good wholesale business.

Now BloomingTea gets about two-thirds of their stock from Townshend’s. “This has allowed us to focus on the business end and the environment, as opposed to learning all that’s involved with buying teas. The other third comes from Mark Wendell on the East Coast; they’ve been in business 100 years or more.”

Wealth of teas

From this stock, the pair has developed some specialty blends of their own, found only in their local shop. They also have what they call their apothecary

April 2018 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • 25

26 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • April 2018

line of about 15 blends of different herbs.

One of them is called “Love,” about which, Christian says, “Townshend’s claims it’s a mild aphrodisiac—I’ve heard it’s all you need and what the world needs now.”

He relates, “A young couple getting married bought several pounds of the Love tea. They’re bagging it themselves, and they’re going to hand it out to their 300 guests as a wedding favor.” Other apothecary teas deal with everything from sore throat to upset stomach.

The proprietors each have some personal favorites among the many teas on the list. Christian explains, “I like the masala chai; black tea with cinnamon, ginger and cardamom— usually prepared as a latte and sweetened with honey—of course we’ll make it any way you want. Our most popular tea is the Crème de la Earl Grey. It includes blue mallow blossoms and the essence of French crème.”

Jenny added, “Strawberry Sencha iced green tea is my favorite. It’s hard to keep it in stock in the summer.”

Another distinctive feature of the shop is their afternoon tea, available by reservation.

Guests partake of finger sandwiches, scones, sweets, and all the tea they’d care to drink.

It’s more casual than a traditional high tea, and a bit more fun too, for groups of two to 18 guests.

CBD oil

BloomingTea patrons can order something extra in their tea (or by itself over the counter) if they are so inclined— water-soluble cannabidiol or CBD oil. The substance has been at the heart of recent controversy in Indiana regarding its legality, while proponents have been touting the restorative and even healing properties of this substance.

Christian explained the decision-making

process: “Once the state announced they wouldn’t confiscate CBD unless it was clearly illegal, we decided to sell it—as ours has no THC. We decided we’d offer CBD oil here.

Since the CDB we sell has no THC, and we can document that, we plan on continuing to sell it until someone in law enforcement tells us we can’t. Hopefully that day won’t come. Someday, it’s going to be completely legal. There’s a strong and growing demand for it, it’s selling well, and it’s innocuous.”

As for the debate, Christian quipped, “CBD oil should be as controversial as broccoli. It should be less controversial than a doughnut, which is perfectly legal, despite well-known and established health risks. We allow people to consume doughnuts, but there’s a murky gray area here because people have been using the plant CBD is derived from to get high for the last five or ten thousand years.”

He clarifies, “CBD is not psychoactive; you can’t get high on it. We hope and trust that good judgment will prevail. This isn’t medical marijuana—that’s a whole different debate. A lot of people are getting relief from—and nobody is getting high on—CBD.” The Fredericksons are pleased with the first few months of operations, including the seven employees who help them run the business. They’ve also included some local businesses and artisans in the shop, with wares for sale including candles, wreaths, tea-oil soaps, baked goods, candies, and even paintings and books.

The goal in the months ahead is to build the business three- or four-fold, augmenting the menu with lunch and dinner options in time. “Our customers have been lovely, very helpful and thoughtful,” Christian says.

Jenny adds, “We have a good environment to have fun in that doesn’t involve alcohol. That’s valuable.”

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Small Living Tiny Homes a big love for Carpenter Owl

By Michelle Crowe Photos courtesy Carpenter Owl

28 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • April 2018

April 2018 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • 29

S

haina Dwiel had magic in mind and she knew just where to conjure it up.

“I thought, if Danny could build it, then it would be more than I could ever hope for,” she says about her parking-spot sized, mobile bakery currently in construction with Daniel Weddle, known not only in Bloomington but nation-wide as the Carpenter Owl tiny-home builder.

Long before his recent fame on the DIY Network and HGTV’s show, “Tiny House Big Living,” Shaina knew Danny as a local artist, musician and carpenter.

And, indeed, this personalized building wizard is still quick to name himself as artist and champion of the local art community.

When presented with the opportunity to showcase his tiny home business on national television, Danny “wanted to share the exposure with other humans who do good work.” And so, he led 16 artisans on a 14-week journey to create Honey on the Rock, a 22-foot-long vacation home with an exterior spiral staircase leading to a roof-top vintage soaker tub.

The project—chronicled in episode six of the show’s seventh season—also featured a secret door, a whiskey still, and perhaps most surprising in a tiny home, a king-sized bed. The level of personalization in Honey on the Rock is not unique for Carpenter Owl. In fact, for Danny, customization is the whole point.

“I am a translator of word to space,” he says, outlining the process of taking a client’s dreams and making them into architecturally sound structures.

Shaina, for example, wanted all the function of a food truck, but had no desire to operate out of anything resembling a concession stand. When her dream on wheels, Broomsticks Bakery, rolls into business this spring,

30 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • April 2018

April 2018 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • 31

32 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • April 2018

she hopes it helps her cast a spell of charm and wonder throughout Bloomington.

She and Danny had no illusions about the hard work ahead as they detailed a 14-by-6-foot witchy cottage on wheels. They are both committed to its functional and sustainable beauty: inside and out.

“Danny’s trademark ceiling is seven different kinds of wood in an alternating pattern. His woodworking is beyond beautiful,” Shaina says.

She is jubilant about her peaked roof with cedar shingles, and hopes budget allows for stained glass, but had to put her roof-top solar panels on the back burner—for now.

“This is a long-term investment for Broomsticks

Bakery,” she says. “Having Danny create something so iconic will draw people to the truck. I have never seen any other food truck that looks like this.”

Special events are part of the plan, and Shaina is especially hoping she has the right recipe for weddings. Danny utilized the typical tiny house stabilization system to allow for parking in nonpavement areas, allowing brides to make cake service a dessert destination.

Meeting the challenge

This is the first commercial project for Carpenter Owl, but Shaina shares that complicated compliance issues seem no more difficult to Danny than any

April 2018 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • 33

34 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • April 2018

other tiny-house challenge.

His personal tiny home—dubbed the Fiddling Snail—surprises guests with a sound-deadening music studio. When building, Danny asked himself the same questions he puts to every client: What do you build your life around? What are your top three to five things?

Music, cooking and hosting were Danny’s priorities at the time of construction. He was inspired by the geometry of the snail, and its ability to carry its own home anywhere it wants or Having work has never been needs to go. a problem. Right now, certain Thanks to his mobile things are opening and tiny home, certain things are closing, but Danny has I am realizing that what I am lived in more committed to the most is the than a dozen places since sense of custom work and completing personalization. construction -Danny Weddle in 2015.

“Living tiny can be both a burden and a freedom,” he says, reflecting on the fact that he has paid off all his debt, but has also moved many times. “I saw this as an elegant tool to bridge the gap between college and home ownership.”

Currently Danny and his partner Annie Stout have parked their tiny homes to give co-habitation a try in a more traditional home. Both see their tiny houses as a way to maintain personal focus spaces—for Annie, dance and textiles, for Danny, a place to free write and practice his fiddle.

Focus is critical to keep up with the pace of building. Carpenter Owl constructs three to four homes a year and expects this to increase dramatically thanks to recent crew expansion. Danny’s sketch pad and computer are full of plans for a 16-foot box truck he imagines as a gypsy caravan, as well as a more traditional tiny home he is designing with an 80-yearold client.

“Having work has never been a problem,” says Danny. “Right now, certain things are opening and certain things are closing, but I am realizing that what I am committed to the most is the sense of custom work and personalization.”

In addition to their current commercial project, Danny and his team have also worked on “schoolies”— the name used to describe a repurposed school bus residence—van conversions, four rolling homes (including his own, but not Annie’s) two rolling cabins, and one slide-in camper for a Silverado truck bed.

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April 2018 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • 35

Painterly Photographs Local duo combines photography and oil painting skills to create one-of-a-kind pieces

By Brooke McCluskey Photos by Chris Howell

36 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • April 2018

April 2018 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • 37

I

s it a painting or a photograph?

That’s the most common question Dorothy Thompson hears about artwork from her studio, Photo Folk. As she welcomes people to her booths at art shows across Indiana, she invariably sees them edge closer and closer to the canvases, searching intently for brush strokes and other textural clues.

“It’s no secret,” Dorothy explains, chuckling. “It’s really both. If people can’t tell and have to ask, well, that’s my goal.”

Photo Folk is an artistic partnership between Dorothy and her friend Chad Swander, who owns Chadon Photographers in Bloomington. Both native Hoosiers, they worked together for 30 years in photography and launched Photo Folk as a separate business in 2016.

“The funny thing is, Chad goes way back with my family, from before I even met him,” Dorothy says. “He had worked with my parents years ago in the restaurant industry and he knew my siblings.”

Decades ago, Dorothy and Chad realized that their artistic minds were very similar. They quickly found a comfortable creative groove. As business partners, they have developed an easy give-andtake that makes working together feel like second nature.

“We’re very similar personalities,” Dorothy says.

38 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • April 2018

“Our styles merge.”

It’s been a productive partnership. In the photography business, Dorothy assists Chad in the creation of photo packages for weddings, parties, reunions, sports and other local gatherings.

Many people in southern Indiana have Chad and Dorothy’s photos on their walls, from one of many events memorialized by Chadon Photography.

Market inspiration

When they heard about a new Bloomington event called the Stone Mill Market, they felt energized. They’d always talked about launching a new venture that was more artwork-driven, and this upscale arts and crafts show seemed like the perfect venue.

“My background is in oil painting,” Dorothy explains. “So I’ve always had that inside me.” She has a Fine Arts Studio degree from Indiana University.

The newly launched Photo Folk combines Dorothy’s oil painting expertise with Chad’s background in photography and world travel. Each image is carefully selected with the duo’s combined sense of composition, color and artistic vision. The artwork is transformed using computer software, then hand-applied to a canvas backing.

On a Photo Folk canvas, you could see a local landmark like the Monroe County courthouse just

April 2018 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • 39

as easily as an image of the worldfamous Eiffel Tower. Colors are bold and saturated. Each finished piece has a sleek, sparkling style unique to Photo Folk.

To create a work of art, Dorothy and Chad start by simply being open to inspiration wherever they go. Rarely do they start out knowing exactly which image they want to capture, or how it will look in the finished piece.

Both always carry their cameras.

Inspiration strikes at unpredictable times. Dorothy describes a recent morning near the B-Line Trail when the blue diamond-shaped bridge caught her eye.

“Just the other day, I was doing a run for work. When I saw that beautiful blue shining, and the people around… It was the right moment. I just had to park and take a photo.”

Dorothy likes to shoot numerous photos at a time, then let the images settle into her mind before continuing to the next stage.

“There’s a process. They sit in my brain for a while before choosing.”

When a few images start to rise to the forefront of her mind, she sits down at the computer to load them into her photo editing software. She uses filters and effects to refine the look of the images and take them to another artistic level. Editing, she finds, is the hardest part.

“I have a hard time limiting myself,” she says cheerfully. “When I look out, I just see things everywhere. It’s very hard to restrict what I see.” The software helps her view the images more objectively and narrow the focus.

When final image is settled, Dorothy prints it on archival paper using one of the large or small printers in their photography facility.

She adheres each print to canvas by hand, carefully using a roller to create textures. Each piece is given a lustrous finish that makes it shine and sparkle in the light.

This is why it’s so hard to tell

40 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • April 2018

whether works from Photo Folk are photos or paintings. They are truly a mixture of both, topped off with a dash of technology. Chad and Dorothy have dubbed them “painterly photographs.”

Custom creations

Many Photo Folk customers seek a special treasure that helps them remember an important day, like a wedding. Sometimes people want to honor a friendship, pet, or family theme. For these custom pieces, Chad and Dorothy work closely with their clients to reveal the heartfelt stories behind the canvas.

Dorothy recently worked with a grandmother who had discovered a sweet note from her granddaughter on her cell phone. Together, they selected a great photo of the granddaughter and incorporated it into an artistic image, along with words from the cell phone message. It’s something the grandmother can enjoy forever.

“That was a really sweet, sentimental one,” Dorothy says.

Photo Folk has also been busy lately with

a large-scale project for an interior designer.

Stacy Thompson of Compass Design, who did interior design for IU’s Chi Omega sorority house, commissioned Photo Folk to create numerous works for the house walls.

“She gave us the layout, the sizes—all in black and white and sepia, and in sizes up to 36-by-48— and we created designs. They were matted in crisp white and framed in black.”

The result is a stunning gallery that made Chad and Dorothy take a fresh look at their own artistic prospects. They now plan to reach out to more interior designers and perhaps explore creating even bigger pieces that resonate with larger audiences.

Of course, the little day-to-day joys of the

outdoors will always be an important part of Photo Folk’s vision. They are Hoosier artists at heart. In their shop at Etsy.com, plucky robins and cardinals perch on canvases just four by four inches tall. Both Chad and Dorothy are avid hikers and feel constantly inspired by nature.

In fact, as Dorothy talks about Indiana seasons, you can almost see the next piece of art shining in her mind.

“Being in Indiana, I love the seasons,” Dorothy muses. “Spring is amazing, with all the greens. In fall, you get oranges, and the light changes. In winter, you have the sparkling of the sun…”

See Photo Folk creations online at photofolk.net or explore their Etsy.com page, PhotoFolkShop.

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April 2018 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • 41

Homes & Lifestyles

Artist Gallery

James B. Campbell Sculptor and painter “Staff of Discovery” 10.75”x44”x2” Acrylic on wood Discover more at campbellarts.net Bloomington, IN 812-333-4577

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“Pixie is a miniature donkey who belongs to a friend of mine who owns a donkey farm. In the fall Pixie was a baby at the time, and I couldn’t resist trying to capture her cuteness!”

DuckworthOther paintings of sunsets, flowers and birds can be seen at Hoosier Artist Gallery in Nashville, Indiana 7807 E Lampkins Ridge Rd 812-361-1071 cherylgreggduckworth.com

42 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • April 2018

Hickory Tree Studio & Country Loom Fiber Arts by Betty Westhues and Pottery by Walt Schmidt Commissions and visits to the studios by chance or appointment.

Pottery also available at By Hand Gallery of Fine Crafts, Fountain Square Mall Suite 109, Bloomington.

Walt Schmidt & Betty Westhues contact@hickorytreestudio.com 812-332-9004 www.hickorytreestudio.com

Marilyn Greenwood Pendant in silver with Rutilated Quartz, Yellow opal and a Black Sapphire.

Hand-fabricated, one-of-a-kind pieces, using unusual gemstones and fossils set in gold and silver.

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Dorothy Thompson Photo Folk “Trees on a foggy Morning, Bloomington” 30”x20” a painterly photograph on canvas.

812-318-1957 dbt@photofolk.net www.photofolk.net

April 2018 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • 43

Homes & Lifestyles

Artist Gallery Marilyn Brinley “Dogwood Blossoms” Photoscapes by Marilyn offers an artistic view of local Indiana and national scenery. Matted photographs in multiple sizes are available for purchase.

Contact Marilyn at photoscapesbymarilyn@gmail.com or via Facebook at facebook.com/photoscapesbymarilyn for information. Or call for details at 812-361-3315.

Martina Celerin “Pie Fruit” Martina Celerin creates wall sculptures that fuse weaving and felting techniques using reclaimed and recycled materials to tell the story of her life.

812-219-0647 info@martinacelerin.com www.martinacelerin.blogspot.com www.martinacelerin.com

Tom Rhea Paintings in gouache “Ball State: The Benny” 9”x12” Intimate portraits of family, home, vacations or special events. Memorialize a moment or a treasured photograph with a reasonably-priced commission for a painting, drawing or print.

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44 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • April 2018

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Reboot House Empty nesters thrive in home renovation

By Pete DiPrimio Photos by Jeremy Hogan

46 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • April 2018

April 2018 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • 47

T

he squirrels have done their worst, and restoration is at hand.

An empty nest isn’t really empty, it’s

better.

Something old—if you consider 19 years old—became something new.

In other words, Laurie and Brad Ragle have gone update-the-house cool, and if you expect a theme, well, who needs one.

“We’re not sophisticated enough to have a theme,” Brad says with a smile.

A pause.

“Get it done is our theme.”

The Ragles have rebooted their 3,200-square-foot home now that son, Will, is living in the Denver area and the result makes a special home even more so. The house nestles on a three-acre lot at the end of a Monroe County subdivision cul-de-sac, with the back overlooking a steeply wooded ravine and a 5-acre lake.

This was exactly what they wanted when they built the house 19 years ago, and it’s exactly what they want now that they’ve remodeled it.

48 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • April 2018

“It’s not far from town,” Laurie says. “It’s quiet.

The neighbors are great. We all watch out for each other. We’re eight to nine minutes to the mall, five minutes from where the new hospital will be.”

The reboot included repairing front columns that became part of a relentless squirrel feast …

Or something.

“They will eat your house,” Laurie says.

“I don’t know if they eat it or use it for nesting,” Brad adds.

Regardless, repairs were made, and updates initiated.

Boy, did it pay off.

A major difference

In brief, the vinyl wood-looking floors on the main level were replaced with wood. All the interior walls were painted. The brass door knobs were out, brushed nickel door knobs were in. The guest bathroom got a new counter, an

April 2018 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • 49

before & after

50 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • April 2018

oil-rubbed bronze faucet and tile flooring. The upstairs received all new carpet.

New countertops were installed in the master bathroom, and the shower was torn out and redone. The master closet featured a cool blueprint for turning the space above the garage - highlighted by odd roof angles - into a superefficient closet.

That’s the general overview. For specifics, let’s start with the family room. It once had a laminate floor that looked like wood, which fooled no one, but accommodate the challenges of a then 4-year-old son and a faithful dog.

Still…

“We always wanted a nice hardwood floor,” Laurie says.

Mission accomplished.

The Ragles installed a distressed engineered

hardwood floor, with a hickory top and an underneath “engineered like plywood for a more stable wood that doesn’t expand or contract,” Brad says.

The new floor basically covers the entire main level of the house. The walls, which were once red, were all repainted using Benjamin Moore’s frappe paint, which is basically a cool grayish brown.

“Working with Bloomington Paint and Wallpaper was great,” Laurie says. “They were really helpful.”

The fireplace also was repainted.

“It was a sequence where you do the majority of the painting while the old flooring was down,” Brad says, “and then when the new flooring goes in, painters touch up everything and finish the base molding.”

April 2018 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • 51

Laurie says Stahl Furniture was a great help. The folks at Stahl were able to come in and completely decorate the living space from furniture to decor.

52 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • April 2018

“Because of the roof line, it made space difficult for hanger space,” Laurie says. “We worked with Closets, Too! to put in a rod unit that split the space and gave us a lot more room.”

The Ragles also installed a new, high efficiency furnace and air conditioner.

The upgrade couldn’t have happened without major contributions from local businesses, which did what was asked, and more.

The results, Laurie says, exceeded expectations. It wouldn’t have been possible, she added without a lot of help from local businesses.

Owen Valley Flooring delivered the wood floors, the tile floor in the guest bathroom and the upper-level carpeting. Carpets Plus Color Tile did the master bathroom shower. Quality Surfaces took care of the new countertops in the master bathroom. Bloomington Paint & Wallpaper provided all the Benjamin Moore paint. HFI installed new HVAC systems and a shower prep on the plumbing. Closests, Too!, did the master bedroom shower door and closet.

And when something more was needed, trips to Lowe’s and Menards saved the day.

The result—something 20th century old is very much something 21st century new.

And the squirrels are nowhere in sight.

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The Ragles also found some “cool floor registers,” Laurie says, from Menards that matched the wood floor.

The breakfast nook’s back wall was painted in “the same color, but two different sheens,” Brad says, to create a checkerboardlike effect.

“It’s visually interesting,” he adds. “It adds texture to the room. We had it before, and we had too many positive comments to change it.”

The kitchen got new peninsula lighting as a follow-up to new granite countertops installed a couple of years ago.

All the polished brass doorknobs and hinges were replaced with satin nickel lever handles.

The upstairs level also was repainted, and new carpeting was installed. The hallway bathroom got new countertops, a new sink, a new faucet, a new light fixture and a new curtain rod. New ceramic flooring was also added.

The master bathroom got a new ceramic tile shower. The tile delivered a 3-by-12-inch hand-made look. The master bathroom also got new Silestone quartz vanity tops.

The master bedroom closet was converted from a bonus room over the garage.

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April 2018 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • 53

Set in Stone

Exceptional limestone photo collection discovered in empty building

By Michelle Crowe Photos courtesy IU Libraries

54 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • April 2018

April 2018 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • 55

T

here are pictures of men extracting limestone from Indiana’s famous stone belt.

Crisp black and white images show machine operators at work in their mills, stone artists proudly posing and iconic structures and statues—both finished and under construction.

But nothing here depicts the history heroes of Indiana’s limestone legacy. No portraits are found of fingers poised over stiff typewriter keys. Only imagination allows remembrance of the diligent 19th century typists who produced 26,000 individual labels chronicling details such as stone quantity and type, photographer, location and architect.

And, according to Licia Weber, a project archivist with the Indiana Geological and Water Survey, the tediously typed information is a key reason the Indiana Limestone Photograph Collection is uniquely exceptional on a national scale.

Today, Licia is part of a group of geological experts rescuing thousands of photographs compiled in the years of 1880 to 1940. The photos, originally used by the Indiana Limestone Company and its predecessors for marketing purposes, were stored in 47 file drawers crammed into the living room of an unconditioned house in Oolitic.

Most extraordinary, Licia says, is the fact that almost every 7.5-by-9.5-inch image is affixed with an informative label. She explains, “It’s very unique to find photos with this much information on them.

Most all of the buildings pictured are identifiable, and that is one of the reasons we work so hard to save and share this collection.”

Limestone treasure trove

Licia was there in 2013 when, after learning about the precarious state of

56 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • April 2018

April 2018 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • 57

58 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • April 2018

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“This website was an important part of why we were able to gain access to the collection. Indiana Limestone wanted it to be shared broadly, and we knew we could make that happen,” she says.

Once scanned, saved and described, the photos are presented on a searchfriendly website titled “Building a Nation: The Indiana Limestone Photograph Collection.” The online gallery offers rich details about each photo, transcribed from the original labels. Examples of famous buildings designed by leading

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photos, the Survey moved the collection to conditioned facilities, obtained seed funding from Indiana University’s Office of the Vice Provost for Research, and began the process of sorting, cleaning and scanning.

In partnership with IU Libraries, the Survey has managed to preserve and circulate over 5,000 of the images. Barbara Hill is the manager of photography and imaging for the Survey. She points out that access to the public was a top priority for the Indiana Limestone Company when they released

Kitchen/Bath Designs

April 2018 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • 59

To view “Building a Nation: Indiana Limestone Photograph Collection,” visit go.iu.edu/16dx, or on exhibit at the Lawrence County Museum of History, in Bedford at 929 15th Street, from March 5 to July 8.

60 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • April 2018

dozens of times. As marketing tools, the photos supported multiple sales people traveling to customers across the nation.

While the online gallery is essential to meet demands for easy access, the collection’s caretakers don’t stop there.

Large-scale photographic exhibitions at the Monroe County History Center, IU Libraries’ Wylie House Museum and Scholar’s Commons, and Bloomington’s downtown Fountain Square bring the collection out of its boxes and into the community.

In early 2018, the Indiana Limestone The journey from Oolitic file drawer Photography Collection will stage its first to library web server is somewhat of an exhibition outside of Monroe County as a odyssey, requiring hours of detailed labor. participant in the So far, volunteer Lawrence County efforts and grant bicentennial support have It’s very unique to find photos celebrations. powered the with this much information on On display will majority of the them. Most all of the buildings be collection work. In 2016, highlights from and again in pictured are identifiable, and the Bedford area, 2017, IU Libraries that is one of the reasons we including some successfully work so hard to save and share styled as “Then & obtained grants Now” comparisons from the U.S. this collection. of the historic Institute of -Licia Weber photos next to Museum and fresh images of the buildings today.

Library Services, administered by the Barbara, one of the photographers to Indiana State Library, to allow a massive capture those current photos, imagines expansion of the digital archive. even more potential.

Many more images remain hidden “Perhaps we can even create a traveling in boxes waiting for their turn at the exhibition that would be available to our scanner. “We believe we have at least 8,000 communities,” she says. “Wherever it goes, unique photos in the collection. None people will leave knowing more about the of this is cookie cutter; each photo is its important legacy that Indiana limestone own challenge,” Licia reports, noting most played in the history of the United States.” images are replicated, some as many as

architects and homes of some of the wealthiest American families of the late 19th and early 20th centuries can be found, including the Vanderbilts and the Goulds. State capitols, libraries, city halls and other municipal buildings, along with museums, monuments and middle-class suburban homes are represented from the cities of New York, Chicago and especially Washington, D.C.

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April 2018 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • 61

The Civil Rights Memorial contains a quote by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

62 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • April 2018

Homes & Lifestyles

Take a Trip

Lasting Impression Civil rights heroes honored on Civil Rights Trail in Montgomery, Alabama Story and photos by Jackie Sheckler Finch

An exhibit at the Rosa Parks Museum called ‘The Epiphany’ shows Martin Luther King Jr. praying for guidance in the days ahead.

T

iny drops of water flow down her fingers and fall to the basin below.

At the same time, an almost unnoticeable tear rolls down her cheek and slips into the water. It’s as though she has become part of the slowly moving stream.

The Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama, has a way of doing that.

“People want to touch it,” says Meg Lewis of the Montgomery Chamber Convention and Visitors Bureau. “And that’s what they are supposed to do.”

Dedicated in the fall of 1989, the monument is a striking black granite memorial commissioned by the Southern Poverty Law Center. It sits outside the center in downtown Montgomery.

Montgomery is, of course, the inevitable site for the memorial. This town was both the “Capital of the Confederacy” and the “Birthplace of Civil Rights.”

It was the home of the legendary Rosa Parks. On Dec. 1, 1955, the 42-year-old seamstress refused to give up her bus seat to a white rider. She was arrested, fingerprinted and put behind bars.

“She became one of many ordinary people cast by events into extraordinary circumstances,” says Kory Ward at the Rosa Parks Library and Museum.

Opened Dec. 1, 2000, the downtown museum chronicles the story of Rosa Parks and the civil rights struggle. The Montgomery bus boycott began Dec. 5, 1955, and lasted 381

April 2018 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • 63

days until the U.S. Supreme Court struck down segregation laws. Among the exhibits is a restored 1955 station wagon used to transport boycotters.

Martin Luther King

Top, visitors can attend services or tour the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church where Martin Luther King Jr. was pastor from 1954 to 1960.

Above, Martin Luther King’s office at the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church has King family photos. Right, the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church was the hub of the bus boycott.

64 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • April 2018

Rosa Parks’ quiet courage helped bring to the forefront a young Montgomery preacher, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who would go on to galvanize the nation. Visitors can tour the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church where he was pastor from 1954 to 1960. It was at the small red-brick church that the bus boycott was organized and the church became the backbone of the movement.

“Dr. King had only been here a year when Rosa Parks was arrested,” says church tour guide Wanda Battle. “These are the original pews and the same pulpit that Dr. King spoke from.”

On the ground floor of the church, a six-section folk mural illustrates major events from MLK’s life. He last preached at the church on Dec. 10, 1967.

The Dexter Parsonage Museum where Martin Luther King Jr. and his family lived between 1954 and 1960 also is open to the public. Built in 1912, the nine-room clapboard parsonage has been restored to its appearance when the young pastor and his family lived here. Much of the furniture in the living room, dining room, bedrooms and study was used by the King family.

“He was sitting in this kitchen at midnight when he said fears were creeping upon his soul,” tour director Shirley Cherry says. “He had hit a brick wall. He was praying out loud when he heard an inner voice saying ‘Stand up for truth. Stand up for righteousness. Stand up for justice.’ All of the fears left him.”

Martin Luther King Jr. was right to fear for the safety of his family and himself. A hole on the parsonage porch is where the home was bombed by local segregationists on Jan. 31, 1956. At the time, the minister was at a meeting but his wife Coretta was at the parsonage with their 10-week-old daughter Yolanda Denice.

“You are walking on hallowed ground here,” Shirley Cherry says.

While standing on the balcony of his Memphis motel room on the evening of April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed. He was 39 years old.

Civil Rights Memorial

But there was no one specific memorial to the civil rights movement and the era it was about. In the spring of 1988, the Southern Poverty Law Center contacted architect Maya Lin about such a memorial for civil rights victims. Lin also was the designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. Water, Maya Lin decided, would be her carrier of truth.

At the memorial, a curved black granite wall is engraved with the Biblical quote used

by Martin Luther King Jr. at the start of the Montgomery bus boycott and in his “I Have a Dream” speech. Paraphrasing a verse in the Bible, he said, “We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Water spills down the Civil Rights Memorial wall at waterfall speed, reflecting the people in front of it.

The second part of the memorial is a circular tabletop resting on an asymmetrical pedestal. Etched around the table’s perimeter are more than 60 entries, radiating like a sundial.

Twenty-one of the entries report landmark events in the civil rights movement. Forty entries describe people who died between 1954 and 1968 fighting for equal treatment of all people. Between the first and last entries is a space to represent civil rights heroes who died before or after this period and others whose stories were not known when the memorial was created.

Along with the arrest of Rosa Parks and the murder of Martin Luther King Jr., entries include: • Aug. 28, 1955, Emmett Louis Till, a 14-year-old boy on vacation in Mississippi from Chicago, reportedly flirted with a white woman in a store. That night, two men took the teen from his bed, beat him, shot him and dumped his body in the Tallahatchie

Above, Martin Luther King Jr. and his family lived in this parsonage from 1954 to 1960. Left, the Rosa Parks Museum honors the seamstress who is called ‘The Mother of the Civil Rights Movement.’

River. An all-white jury found the men innocent of murder.

• June 12, 1963, Medgar Evers, who directed NAACP operations in Mississippi, was leading a campaign for integration in Jackson when he was shot and killed by a sniper at his home.

• Sept. 15, 1963, Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley were getting ready for church services when a bomb exploded at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in

Birmingham, killing all four of the schoolage girls. The church had been a center for civil rights meetings and marches.

Visitors to the memorial can touch the names of the civil rights dead and see themselves in the water flowing over it.

The water rises from a hole in the tabletop and flows over it evenly. The table is only 31 inches high, deliberately accessible to children.

As an outdoor monument, the Civil Rights Memorial never closes. In the several times I have visited, I have never been there when some other stranger wasn’t also there.

Some of them are playful children, some teenagers who stand quietly, some people who pause for only a moment, some adults and older folks who often spend a long time reading the inscriptions.

Almost always, visitors touch the moving water. Their hands create ripples which seem to transform the memorial, perhaps in the same way those names inscribed have helped change our nation.

For more information: Contact the Montgomery Chamber Convention and Visitors Bureau at (800) 240-9452, www. visitingmontgomery.com

April 2018 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • 65

Homes & Lifestyles

Recipe

Decadent Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Tart Mardi Gras has come and gone, but this ode to the classic Southern dessert is here to stay Recipe and photo by Shaylan Owen

Ingredients: Crust: 8 ounces chocolate graham crackers 7 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted 1 tablespoon cocoa powder 1 tablespoon granulated sugar 2 teaspoons instant espresso powder Pinch salt Filling: 1 2/3 cups natural creamy peanut butter 8 ounces mascarpone cheese, softened 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened 1/2 cup powdered sugar 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract Pinch salt Caramelized bananas: 3 medium bananas, sliced 1/4 cup brown sugar 1/4 cup red wine 3 tablespoons butter Pinch salt Pinch cayenne pepper

66 • Homes & Lifestyles of South-Central Indiana • April 2018

Topping: 4 ounces bittersweet baking chocolate 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream 1/2 cup pecan pieces, toasted Instructions: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In the bowl of a food processor, combine the graham crackers with the other dry ingredients and process until fully combined. Add the melted butter and pulse until evenly mixed. Press the crust into a 10-inch tart pan or 9-inch pie dish assuring the crust mixture lines the bottom and sides evenly.

Bake for about 15 minutes, until the crust smells chocolatey and the surface appears dry. Set aside to cool.

While the crust is baking, add the filling ingredients to the cleaned bowl of the food processor and puree until smooth, about two minutes. Set aside.

To make the bananas, melt and brown the butter in a medium skillet over medium-high heat until it smells lightly nutty. Add the bananas, salt, brown sugar, and cayenne pepper, and stir to coat evenly. When the brown sugar begins to melt and bubble, add the wine and reduce until the sauce thickens and evenly sticks to the bananas. Set aside to cool.

Spread the peanut butter mixture in the bottom of the cooled pie crust, then transfer the bananas on top evenly, and chill in the refrigerator for 15 minutes. To make the chocolate ganache to top the tart, heat the heavy cream in a small saucepan over medium heat. When the cream begins to simmer, remove from the heat and add the chocolate. Stir until the chocolate is melted and smooth. Let cool for 5 minutes.

Spread the ganache over the chilled tart and sprinkle the toasted pecan pieces on top. Let chill for up to an hour before cutting. Serve with whipped cream and shavings of chocolate.

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