Location: 704 E. Main Street, New Albany. (Floyd County, Indiana)
Installed: 2003 Indiana Historical Bureau, Steven W. Goodman, and Carlus Holliday
ID# : 22.2003.1
Text
Side one:
William S. Culbertson, wealthy merchant, opened home November 18, 1873 to provide food, clothing, and shelter for town's destitute widows. Home had gas lighting, upstairs water closet, and up-to-date kitchen. Residents' lives were structured according to strict rules. Culbertson's will provided support for the home after his death in 1892.
Side two:
Board of Trustees for home was formed 1922; it turned the home into a boardinghouse with a monthly fee in 1947. Because of changing city regulations, the Board closed the home 1971. James Banes was builder of the brick Italianate structure, which is included in Mansion Row Historic District, listed in National Register of Historic Places 1983.
Keywords
Women, Buildings and Architecture
Annotated Text
Side one:
William S. Culbertson, wealthy merchant, (1) opened home November 18, 1873(2) to provide food, clothing, and shelter for town's destitute widows. Home had gas lighting, upstairs water closet, and up-to-date kitchen.(3) Residents' lives were structured according to strict rules.(4) Culbertson's will provided support for the home after his death in 1892.(5)
Side two:
Board of Trustees for home was formed 1922;(6) it turned the home into a boardinghouse with a monthly fee in 1947.(7) Because of changing city regulations, the Board closed the home 1971.(8) James Banes was builder(9) of the brick Italianate(10) structure, which is included in Mansion Row Historic District, listed in National Register of Historic Places 1983.(11)
Notes:
(1) C.W. Cotton, New Albany Indiana (New Albany, Indiana, 1873), 59.
(2) New Albany Ledger-Standard, November 19, 1873.
(3) New Albany Ledger-Standard, November 19, 1873.
(4)Board of Trustees, Terms of Admission and Rules for the Government of the Culbertson Home, New Albany (n.l., n.d.). Original in New Albany-Floyd County Public Library.
(5) Last Will and Testament of William S. Culbertson, signed January 19, 1892.
(6) New Albany Tribune, August 10, 1962.
(7) New Albany Tribune, August 10, 1962.
(8) Interview with Mrs. Marilyn Pinaire, April 15, 2002; John A. Cody, Jr. to Mrs. William W. Lee, August 2, 1971 discusses the asking price for the home ($27, 000) and suggests an auctioneer; New Albany Tribune, October 24, 1971.
(9) There are differences in the sources on the name Bane or Banes. We have chosen to go with Banes based on the 1868 city directory entry. Banes is often listed as an architect of the building, but we have found no definitive sources to document this. The Directory of New Albany and Floyd County (1868), 37 gives the name as "Banes, William and James T., Carp'ts and joiners. Market, N e cor up ninth". National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination Form (1978), Description, 5 says "designed and built by James Bane." Floyd County Interim Report, 27, indicates James Banes (architect). The New Albany Daily Ledger, October 2, 1867 lists Wm. and J. Banes as the "supervisors." The New Albany Ledger Standard, November 19, 1873 gives the name "Mr. Bane, the supervising architect and builder."
(10) National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination Form, (1983), Description, 5.
(11) Historic Indiana, 1999-2000, (Indianapolis, 2000), 23.