Father Pitt

Tag: Philadelphia Street (Indiana)

  • Harry White Building and Mrs. C. B. M. White Building, Indiana

    The Harry White Building

    This fine example of provincial Rundbogenstil stands on Philadelphia Street, the main business street in the town of Indiana, and we have no need to ask when it went up, because the date 1910 is picked out in large numbers made of contrasting bricks.

    Five years later, another White building went up a few doors up the street in a similar style:

    The Mrs. C. B. M. White Building

    This one had a higher budget: not only was it larger, but it also had stone trimmings and large art-glass windows (later replaced with glass block). Note the apparently original storefront on the right-hand side.

    Old Pa Pitt doesn’t know how Mrs. White was related to Harry White. But that they were related is obvious, both from the matching styles and from this keystone on the Mrs. C. B. M. White building, which bears a monogram with the initials HW.

    Keystone with initials HW
    Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.
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  • First National Bank, Indiana

    First National Bank

    A fine classical bank adapted as the headquarters of the Indiana County Tourist Bureau. The interior is well preserved, except for a partition behind the teller counters that obscures some of the intended symmetry of the design.

    Interior of the bank, looking toward the rear
    Interior looking toward the front
    Former teller window
    Decorative grotesque panel over a door
    Fountain
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  • Midtown Building, Indiana

    Midtown Building, front elevation

    With five floors in a base-shaft-cap formula, this imposing classical building is the closest thing downtown Indiana has to a traditional skyscraper.

    Entrance
    Midtown Building
    Midtown Building and Philadelphia Street
    Midtown Building with the old courthouse behind it
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  • A. W. Wilson Building, Indiana

    A. W. Wilson Building

    James W. Drum, who designed the old Indiana County Courthouse across the street, was the architect of this building, whose date of 1880 is prominently displayed in a disk at the top. A walking tour of Philadelphia Street published forty years ago mentions that the building “had Indiana’s first large display windows.” Back in 1986 it was a hardware store; since then the ground floor has been restored to look much more properly Victorian.

    Crest with date 1880
    Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.
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