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Rome City on Endangered Building List in Indiana


pawtucket
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Hell, the roofs were in bad shape 30 years ago. If they haven't had a lot of significant restoration work since then, they must be awful now.

I never lived there, so I don't have the affection for the place that maybe some former residents have, but I don't find much of anything worthwhile enough about the structures to warrent their saving. To me they're just old, outdated, and rundown buildings. And unless they can find a buyer who has specific needs that the place is well suited to, I think the buildings WILL come down.

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I tend to agree with Geo here. They're just buildings. This reminds me of 2 parallel situations.

1) In Grand Rapids, MI where I lived in 1987 Burger King wanted to open a new store in the downtown area. The site they wanted to open on had a house on it that used to be lived in by the sheriff of GR in 1860 something. This historical society fought it in court...and lost. The judges decision was at 9:15 AM. By 10 AM the house was completely razed.

2) I own a 2 disc DVD set called the closing of Winterland. Used to be the 'home of the ice follies' until Bill Graham took it over after Fillmore West closed down. But Winterland closed down, too, and the Grateful Dead, the New Riders, and even the Blues Bros. did an all night concert complete with breakfast on New Years Eve 78/79. The 2 discs include 3 sets by the Dead, plus footage of the other groups, and interviews with band members, roadies, and BG himself all about Winterland.

Neat place; I personally went to several concerts there. The Rolling Stones played there in '72. Wooden stage, wooden floor, good acoustics overall, nice place to see a show, but there were incidents of big chunks of plaster falling from the ceiling. The location is now occupied by condos.

I visited Rome City a few times and twice I drove down and worked the Christmas party they did for the staff. Neat place. But unless they can find a reason to occupy those buildings and the cash to execute said reason, it'll probably get turned into a public park if not a mall.

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George, you're probably right, but I hate to see old buildings neglected and then lost. I think the place is probably of more historical than architectural significance.

The property had its highlights, though. The ceiling of the main barn was spectacular. It looked like the inside of the bottom of a huge, wooden ship. The stained-glass windows in the chapel were really beautiful.

It was just a cool place...designed for complete self-sufficiency, with the dorms (former convent rooms), chapel, the barns and outbuildings, the auto shop, the laundry room, the canning room, the moats and springs on the property, the orchards. Then there were the tunnels and passageways and the huge attic (bats included), and the pastures and the woods.

If they could save some of the buildings, it would be a great place for a museum. With 197 acres, they could re-create a whole 19th-century midwestern village there. Sorta the Williamsburg of Indiana!

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George, you're probably right, but I hate to see old buildings neglected and then lost. I think the place is probably of more historical than architectural significance.

The property had its highlights, though. The ceiling of the main barn was spectacular. It looked like the inside of the bottom of a huge, wooden ship. The stained-glass windows in the chapel were really beautiful.

It was just a cool place...designed for complete self-sufficiency, with the dorms (former convent rooms), chapel, the barns and outbuildings, the auto shop, the laundry room, the canning room, the moats and springs on the property, the orchards. Then there were the tunnels and passageways and the huge attic (bats included), and the pastures and the woods.

If they could save some of the buildings, it would be a great place for a museum. With 197 acres, they could re-create a whole 19th-century midwestern village there. Sorta the Williamsburg of Indiana!

That sounds like a great idea, Linda ... I wish someone WOULD do that!

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I wish someone would do it, too. Alas, I don't live in Indiana and have no pull there, but I think it would be a great way to save some of the buildings and provide a point of interest. Gene Stratton-Porter's home is nearby, so it could be another tourist stop.

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  • 6 years later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Grace Valerie Claire, The site once known as The Way College of Biblical Research, Indiana Campus, was indeed the locale of the Family Way Corps training center. Before that, it was a health spa for a chapter of nuns of the Roman Catholic church, sisters of Our Lady of Charity and Mercy, I believe. It was a beautiful campus, with a dairy barn, big gardens for the slaves to work in, dormitories, and a large chapel which still contained stained glass windows that were too precious to be removed in spite of their Catholic themes.  There was also a little hill which had formerly contained little alcoves depicting the Stations of the Cross, which VPW had removed to expel what he said were the accompanying devil spirits.

The TWI kept beef cows, pigs, and chickens as well as gardens. Every few weeks some slave would be sent to the post office to retrieve a few hundred baby chicks and six weeks after that names would be called off for a special assignment of slaughtering the chickens. Thank God we got kicked out FWC before my name came up; I would have become an instant vegetarian.

It was called "family" but your children were taken away from you and raised by staff. Each adult, staff or corps, was required to carry a wooden spoon to smite any erring child. The staff's childrens were exempt and some of them pretty much raised hell whenever they felt like it.  W&&ne Cla** occasionally had to retrieve his eldest from the hands of the local constabulary as I recall.

Mr. Garden and I arrived early to enroll our son in school and were volunteers in the canning room for a couple of weeks. Unfortunately we knew more about safe food preparation and canning than the staff zeeatch in charge, so there were a few conflicts. Also, when we made salsa, we were strictly forbidden to include onions, as LCM hated onions. Nor were we allowed to put garlic in the salsa, because he also abhorred garlic! What the heck, does he just want tomato sauce? I suggested we make him a personal batch and label it "El Presidente Especial Blend" but OHHELLNO! If that was the president's preference we needed to renew our minds to his godly thoughts on salsa recipes!

In spite of the largesse of foods and veggies, we ate meagerly. Most of the good stuff went to NK for pleasurable consumption by the MOG and his minions. Sad.

More later. Love ya. I'm making a short story long, but you had to ask LOL!

 

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6 minutes ago, Watered Garden said:

Grace Valerie Claire, The site once known as The Way College of Biblical Research, Indiana Campus, was indeed the locale of the Family Way Corps training center. Before that, it was a health spa for a chapter of nuns of the Roman Catholic church, sisters of Our Lady of Charity and Mercy, I believe. It was a beautiful campus, with a dairy barn, big gardens for the slaves to work in, dormitories, and a large chapel which still contained stained glass windows that were too precious to be removed in spite of their Catholic themes.  There was also a little hill which had formerly contained little alcoves depicting the Stations of the Cross, which VPW had removed to expel what he said were the accompanying devil spirits.

The TWI kept beef cows, pigs, and chickens as well as gardens. Every few weeks some slave would be sent to the post office to retrieve a few hundred baby chicks and six weeks after that names would be called off for a special assignment of slaughtering the chickens. Thank God we got kicked out FWC before my name came up; I would have become an instant vegetarian.

It was called "family" but your children were taken away from you and raised by staff. Each adult, staff or corps, was required to carry a wooden spoon to smite any erring child. The staff's childrens were exempt and some of them pretty much raised hell whenever they felt like it.  W&&ne Cla** occasionally had to retrieve his eldest from the hands of the local constabulary as I recall.

Mr. Garden and I arrived early to enroll our son in school and were volunteers in the canning room for a couple of weeks. Unfortunately we knew more about safe food preparation and canning than the staff zeeatch in charge, so there were a few conflicts. Also, when we made salsa, we were strictly forbidden to include onions, as LCM hated onions. Nor were we allowed to put garlic in the salsa, because he also abhorred garlic! What the heck, does he just want tomato sauce? I suggested we make him a personal batch and label it "El Presidente Especial Blend" but OHHELLNO! If that was the president's preference we needed to renew our minds to his godly thoughts on salsa recipes!

In spite of the largesse of foods and veggies, we ate meagerly. Most of the good stuff went to NK for pleasurable consumption by the MOG and his minions. Sad.

More later. Love ya. I'm making a short story long, but you had to ask LOL!

 

WG, wow!!  I didn't know this thanks for the information.  I grew up on a farm; farming is a lot of work!!  I personally want nothing to do with it; that's why I live in a city.  LCM doesn't like onions or garlic??  Too bad; both of them are very healthy for the body.  WG, my mother used to can vegetables; food safety is very important!!  If certain procedures aren't followed, people can get sick, or die.  All that food, and you ate meagrely??  Of course the best food went to NK; VPW was a Pig in more ways than one.  WG, you have mentioned before, that you were kicked-out of FWC.  That really surprises me; you sound like an intelligent, level-headed Woman to me. I can't imagine someone like you being kicked-out, but TWI did some strange things!!

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Grace VC, we were dismissed from FWC because our son, aged 10 1/2 and adopted by us at age 8, simply refused to behave. We probably shouldn't have been there in the first place. We weren't allowed to spend much time with him and he wasn't allowed to take his Ritalin. I don't worry about it too much any more; he's a wonderful man and I love him dearly. He wouldn't let them break him!

 

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2 minutes ago, Watered Garden said:

Grace VC, we were dismissed from FWC because our son, aged 10 1/2 and adopted by us at age 8, simply refused to behave. We probably shouldn't have been there in the first place. We weren't allowed to spend much time with him and he wasn't allowed to take his Ritalin. I don't worry about it too much any more; he's a wonderful man and I love him dearly. He wouldn't let them break him!

 

They wouldn't let him take his Ritalin??!!  I have a problem with my skin; the VA gives me a lot of pills to take, and creams to use.  They probably wouldn't let me take my meds either; F-them!!  I say good for you, and your son!!  

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