In the 1950s, places like the Gem, the Shamrock, the Town and Country, and the Vel-Mor served as early oases for weary travelers headed into Hancock County on US-40. Some still stand today! Among the survivors is the Howard Hughes Motor Lodge, now known as the Budget Motel.
I’m the only one of my siblings not to have been a foreign exchange student. Years after my brother’s trip to Brazil and my sister’s time in Germany, though, it looks like I can finally say that the joke’s on them: here in the Hoosier state, a six-hour drive can take you all over the world from Mexico to Peru, Mecca, Brazil, Lebanon, Galveston and back- even cramming in a stop at Kokomo to see the Beach Boys on your way home.
Continue reading “The Clay County, Indiana Courthouse (1914-)”
The town of Ogden, Indiana, sprung up around alignments of the old Central Railroad and the National Road. Laid out by Hiram Crum during the winter of 1828, the settlement was originally named Middletown in reference to its position roughly halfway between Richmond and Indianapolis. Another Middletown -also in Henry County- had already been platted, so Crum’s town was renamed to honor an engineer who helped construct the National Road through the area. In 1871, a two-story brick schoolhouse was built to serve the roughly 300 people1 who lived there. It became Spiceland Township’s District 4 schoolhouse.
Continue reading “Spiceland Township’s Ogden Schoolhouse in Henry County”
Ted Shideler 