Weida Building Demolished

I took this photo of the Weida building at 302 Vine Street in West Lafayette a little over a week ago. A few days after that, it was demolished. This is one of many changes we'll be seeing as the State Street Redevelopment Project progresses.

What are some of your memories of this building? I hope that you will share them in the comments here or via email at wlhrcenter@gmail.com.

Historic Morris School Relocation

Have you heard the news? Historic Morris School, currently located at the northeast corner of U.S. 231 and West Cumberland Avenue in West Lafayette, is being relocated to an area of land gifted by Mr. Lynn Cason. The land it sits on now was sold to Franciscan Health, a private health care organization, in 2014, raising concerns for the schoolhouse's future throughout the local community.

The Journal and Courier shared the news of an accepted bid by the city in late September, WLFI shared similar news in mid-December, and Indiana Landmarks picked up the story in late December.

The fate of Morris School was a topic of discussion in a number of meetings of the West Lafayette History and Research Center's Advisory Board. Many of us tried to figure out how we could find both land and funds to relocate the schoolhouse. Now that Lynn Cason has graciously provided the land, we need to band together to raise the money. Please be sure to check out the links to learn more about this historic schoolhouse, and learn how you can help save this Indiana landmark!

In the meantime, I'd be excited to hear if any of you have memories of Morris School. Feel free to reach out to me or share here!

Looking Back . . . and Ahead

The leaves have begun to fall from the trees and the cool breeze is in the air. My favorite season has arrived, and with it has come some time for reflection on the past few months.

We held our 2016 Bicentennial State Street Walking Tour on Sunday, July 10. On behalf of the West Lafayette History and Research Center, I want to thank everyone for their support and assistance in making the walking tour such a success. I also want to thank everyone who went on the tour and spent some time with our docents. I know each of them enjoyed sharing some of West Lafayette's rich history with everyone who would listen.

We learned some new things from the tour, as well.
For instance, we all know Purdue Pete. Well, he's celebrating his 60th anniversary as one of Purdue's mascots this year, but Pete himself is actually over a decade older. He was born in 1940 when University Book Store's owners at the time created him to serve as the store's advertising logo. He didn't become a mascot for Purdue's athletics department until 1956. This is only one story we heard from visitors on the tour, and we are so grateful for all the stories shared that day.

Even though the event has passed, we're still working to capture all of the information and memories shared that day. We will soon have a video from the event, which will feature each of our highlighted stops, to share with everyone. We will also be adding photos to our growing collections in the archives. If anyone has any stories to share with us, please, don't hesitate to reach out to us. I'd love to hear about everyone's favorite parts of the tour. State Street will be completely transformed before we know it, and it's imperative that we capture its history so it's not swept away.

In other news, we have received many new donations to the West Lafayette Public Library's archives these past few months, and I am actively working to sort through them and get them organized. It's always fascinating to learn new information about the history of this great city. There will be much more to share in the coming weeks, so please check back to the blog soon. Happy fall, everyone!

SAVE the DATE : Sunday July 10 : State Street Walking Tour!

SAVE THE DATE!

State Street walking tour: SUNDAY, JULY 10 
from 1 to 4 pm

State Street - the heart of old West Lafayette and gateway 

to the newest of West Lafayette! 

Join us for a walk down State Street & share memories of the old days 

& the bright new days to come.

Docents will be ready to talk with you at selected sites along the route. 

We hope you’ll share YOUR memories of the State Street past with us too.

More information will follow in the coming weeks. 

Sponsored by: 

 West Lafayette History and Research Center   

and the West Lafayette Public Library

and the Mayor’s Office of West Lafayette

 ********************************************************

A Bit of Background on the State Street Walking Tour 

scheduled for Sunday July 10

 Indiana’s bicentennial during 2016 and the major changes coming to the State Street landscape this year and years following have prompted the West Lafayette History and Research Center to focus our efforts at capturing the history of the retail corridor long known as State Street in West Lafayette - Then and Now. 

Remember the street car lines running down State Street?  Or how State Street has evolved from a thriving family centered retail/service artery for West Lafayette offering everything from grocery stores to barber shops, drug stores to women and men’s clothing stores lining State Street to the current emphasis on serving the retail needs of Purdue students and staff ? 

We look forward to collecting YOUR memories too – we hope you’ll share them with our docents and on written comment cards available during the tour at the Library before and after the tour.

Monthly Memories

Members of the West Lafayette History and Research Advisory Council meet most every month to discuss developments for the West Lafayette History Center and to share city memories.  

The Council members have asked to share those memories with our blog readers and so beginning with the March 28, 2016 meeting notes we're glad to make them available.

Comments and clarifications are welcome!

We're focusing our attention on State Street for the 2016 Bicentennial Year and so the March meeting of the Council discussed a wide number of State Street building topics and traditions.  

Here is a summary of those March 28, 2016 discussions.....

State Street in the Village Area of West Lafayette was a retail center for the community for many decades from the late 19th and well into the 20the century. State Street's retail importance continues with a sometimes different cast of business characters today.  

Highlighting this retail commerce, several notable buildings located along State Street - from the Levee area deep into the Village - are discussed in a video series produced by Purdue students as well. Watching these videos offers us a look back into a West Lafayette from earlier days.......... 

 
GRAVE'S BAKERY

HARRY'S CHOCOLATE SHOP

More Harry's can be found here as well.

The MILLER BUILDING on nearby South Street

SOUTHWORTH BOOKSTORE & “The Harlequin Club”; Gumball alley : an interview with Dick Bossung

SPARKLETONE CLEANERS and the former Kroger's grocery on State Street

UNIVERSITY BOOKSTORE & Purdue Pete and Southworth's

And with Triple XXX is all about the root beer...and the burgers..... Triple XXX

Elsalyn Shop for women’s wear opened on Northwestern Avenue in the Village and moved to State Street across from Harry’s Chocolate Shop (located at 318 State Street in the 1960 and 1970 City Directories; it was located at 724 Northwestern Avenue in the 1950 City Directory).  The shop was owned by Judge Parkinson (a Federal Judge in Chicago) and his wife Elsie and was known as a chic women’s fashion store in its day.  It was a neighbor to Geisler’s Style Stores for Men (1950, 1960 City Directories) at 316 State Street and by Steck’s Wear-haus for men (1970 City Directory) at 300 State Street.

Drug Store competition in the Village!  The Walgreens/CVS competition of the modern day was presaged by a local drug store competition in the 1950’s ‘60’s and ‘70’s.

The long established Bartlett’s Drugs was a locally owned Lafayette/West Lafayette pharmacy just up the street from State and Northwestern (just east of Southworth’s at 306 State Street – 1950 and 1960 City Directories).  

 A second Lafayette/West Lafayette pharmacy – University Rexall - was located in the nearby Jacques building at 314 State Street. (150 and 1960 City Directories).   A 1956 photo shows both University Rexall and Bartlett’s on State Street.

Bartlett’s was challenged by the “upstart” Norb Arth who purchased and moved into Bartlett’s drug store as of the 1970 City Directory.  (University Rexall by that time had changed its name to “Priced Rite Discount Center”.)

Note: Arth’s Rexall Drugs is shown at a Stadium Avenue address in the 1950 and 1960 City Directories; Arth’s stayed at this address for many years after adding the State Street location.  

Arth’s Drugs became a fixture in the Village for the next several decades with an entry/exit on both State Street and Northwestern Avenues.  

Cafeteria and Restaurants in the Village: a number of small restaurants and one cafeteria were to be found along State Street between Northwestern and Grant Streets - The Varsity Inn, Kampus Kitchen, Jul’s Diner. A cafeteria was located in the storefront that now holds University Bookstore; named the “The College Inn Cafeteria” it address was 356 State Street near Grant Street (1950 City Directory). These eateries were staffed, we are told,  with both Purdue students and local residents from Lafayette and West Lafayette.

The Jacques building sported a local Pool Hall in the basement listed as  “Johnston’s Billiard Hall” in the 1960 City Directory; it was later known as “The Hole” (see the 1970 City Directory; also see the establishment’s advertising sign in the 1950’s photo of State Street). This was a place for high school and college kids to hang out “back in the day”. 

The upper (second) floor was the Sunday home of Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church.  A long time resident remembers - selling the Sunday Journal and Courier to the parishioners after church services when he was sa youth. 

In the 1950’s the Jacques building also housed at 314 State Street University Rexall Drug store; and Geiseler Style Store for Men at 316 State Street. Both stores were located on the building's first floor. 

Across State Street the Lux (1950) and then Howard’s Market (1960) offered groceries at 317 State Street.   This is now the location of Von's Shops.

“Big Rock Market” was a grocery store located at the base of State Street at River Road located at 101-105 State Street (1950 City Directory).  It may have been named for the folkloric “Rattlesnake Rock” that legend places near this site in early West Lafayette history.  Supposedly rattlesnakes infested an outcropping of rocks near this location and so early State Street and River Roads meandered around them.

The Stabilizer Bar (actually located at 125 Pierce Street and now part of Purdue’s Rawls Hall) was known as a “counter culture” bar in West Lafayette from 1976.  It was one of the few – and popular – venues for live music in the City. Previously it was a “rent a freezer locker” with various names over the decades, an establishment where local residents would store sides of beef and other large freezer items for eventual use in home cooking. It was “vacant” in 1971 but then became a restaurant with a different name each year; in 1973 it was “The Barefoot Boy” restaurant. 

Too, State Street in the Village was a center for Purdue student, faculty and staff living for many many decades....

The VARSITY APARTMENTS at 101 Andrew Place on the corner of State Street and Andrew Place is now the home of many Purdue students. In its past it was the home of many Purdue faculty and staff since its establishment in the earlier 20th century. It is said the Varsity also housed Purdue football team members for a number of years – do you know when???  

The Varsity Apartments are featured on a YouTube video : Varsity Apartments

Andrew Place, just off of State Street and east of the Grant/State Street intersection retains one of the oldest standing homes in West Lafayette.  The house, located next to the Purdue parking garage and almost facing State Street is said to have been originally built and owned by one of the founding families of the West Lafayette area, the Andrew family.

A long standing fraternity, Pi Kappa Alpha (the “Pikes”), located at 149 Andrew Place ceased to be listed as a fraternity after 1965 and was not rebuilt at that address, moving to University Street by 1970.  

It was noted too that West Lafayette was home to a Jewish Fraternity and though not located on State Street or Andrew Place the Jewish Fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi (Pi Upsilon Chapter at Purdue) was founded in 1952 and was located at 503 University Street; it is now located on David Ross Road.  Alpha Epsilon Pi

And we're learning that modern day traditions like "Breakfast Club" were not the only campus hi-jinks to find a home along State Street....

It was reported that the “NUDE OLYMPICS” associated with Purdue students took place on State Street in the Fall of 1976.  The resident who remembered them reported that crowds lined both side of the Street as the event took place.  The resident remembered only one male who ran the race in the nude – wearing boots and a clear plastic raincoat; other male and female runners were wearing swimsuits/bikinis.

HILLS and DALES Neighborhood History

Alexander Sganga, Pranay Shoroff, Julian Belal Ms. Stacy Nall

  English 10800

15 December 2015

Hills and Dales: Old is Gold

West Lafayette is a town primarily fueled by Purdue University and the business it brings with its many students from all corners of the world, but it is seldom recognized that there is a more permanent community that resides outside the more direct influence of the University.

Though not nearly as old as some of its neighboring communities, the Hills and Dales community located just north­west of university campus has been deeply intertwined with Purdue’s affairs since its conception in the 1920s.

The Hills and Dales community has—for the most part—remained relatively unaffected by decades of depression, war, and other national crises and many houses from its original construction remain today as historic icons. One must wonder then, what kind of a role did politics play throughout the Hills and Dales community? This chronicle attempts to give its reader a short but thorough glimpse into the different issues that the community faced from its construction in the 1920s to present day, as well as compare and contrast the community’s life with that if surrounding West Lafayette.

Location

To understand politics in Hills and Dales it is useful to look at the larger area that represents Hills and Dales: West Lafayette. Present day West Lafayette rises above the tumult of its founding. But quite a twisted founding it did have. As local pastor and councilmember Peter

Bunder of the Chapel of the Good Shepherd puts it, “The city of West Lafayette has a checkered history. It’s 3 little towns. For a while you cannot send mail here because nobody knows what West Lafayette is. [...] It’s land speculators from the east who buy land along the river and are sort of jockeying for position.”

The jockeying was not a little thing. In the area of what is now West Lafayette, several settlements popped up before West Lafayette became what it is today. First, in the 1820s, the settlement of Jacktown came to be. Then in 1836, Augustus Wylie established a settlement peculiarly called “West Lafayette.” But that is not the West Lafayette of today, this previous iteration failed. 1855 saw Jesse Lutz found the Town of Kingston and 1860 was the year the Chaunceys came to town. Well, actually it was not. The Chaunceys were those eastern land speculators that Bunder mentioned earlier. The Chauncey family was a wealthy Philadelphia family who never lived in West Lafayette and might have never even graced its land.

Nonetheless, the Chauncey family founded the Town of Chauncey. These towns ­­Jacktown, the Town of Kingston, the Town of Chauncey, and not the previous West Lafayette­­ were the three towns Bunder mentioned that make up West Lafayette. In 1866, these towns started cooperating, and, by the turn of the decade, the three became one. The three became Chauncey. In 1871, Chauncey asked to be annexed by Lafayette but was denied due to transriver infrastructure costs. It was not until 1888 that Chauncey changed its name because, as Bunder mentioned earlier, nobody could send mail there. The town changed its name to West Lafayette, and all its mail was routed through Lafayette. Afterward, without Lafayette and with Purdue University, the town of West Lafayette grew to the point that in 1924 it became a city. With growth came the

development of more neighborhoods and, in the same year as West Lafayette’s establishment as a city, came Hills and Dales (New Chauncey Neighborhood Plan).

The cooperation between those three little towns that led to the creation of West Lafayette can still be seen in the contemporary politics of the area. West Lafayette is a small city and Hills and Dales is by no means a big community, facts which have not changed over the recent decades.

Small sizes mean that each of West Lafayette’s districts are small as well and that Hills and Dales does not constitute a whole district. Issues can easily extend between districts, uniting them in sentiment, and, in a similar manner, issues throughout a district can easily extend between communities. Not only do districts and communities interact and cooperate, but they have to in order to further their own desires. A controversy regarding Lindberg Road, the road

that constitutes the northern border of the Hills and Dales neighborhood, illustrates this unity between neighborhoods. Lindberg Road had been constructed over some mucky land, and was beginning to sink into the mud. In 1989, the City Council proposed a series of maintenance steps that included the widening of the street from 2 to 4 lanes in some areas. Many homeowners living near the streets were not happy with this plan, and voiced their displeasure. One went so far as to say “Quality of life means a lot to us­ that’s why we don’t live in Lafayette”. The extra lanes would cut into people’s property and the extra traffic that the road would invite could increase noise pollution. These are both things that would lower property values, possibly significantly (Higgins).

The fact that Lindberg Road extends far beyond the edge of the Hills and Dales neighborhood ensured that its controversy involved more than just the Hills and Dales Community. In fact, the most vocal individuals in the newspaper article that discussed the Lindberg Controversy were not even residents of Hills and Dales, but of Blackbird Farms, a nearby neighborhood (Higgins). What affected one neighborhood affected the other, creating a political bond that it does not appear will soon be broken.

History

Ross Ade Stadium and Hills and Dales’ Early Development. Hills and Dales’ foundation was first laid in 1924, the same year that West Lafayette officially became a city, and continued to grow through the 30s and into the 40s. According to Tour de Lafayette, “Early settlers and developers considered the land undesirable due to the hilly topography, but in the 1920s the land was thought to be ideal for housing development. Young families associated with the university saw the area's potential.” So, in one of the biggest political plays of the Hills and Dales’ early

years, that potential was given the chance to materialize in response to Purdue’s desire to create Ross­Ade stadium and become part of the Big 10 College Network.

“It was about that time that David Ross who was one of the influential people at the university, he was a local industrialist who was a Purdue Graduate and interested in Lafayette, decided that if Purdue was to be a factor in the Big 10, they had to have a stadium. And he decided that the place to have the stadium was at the extension of the western campus residential development. [Jim Shook’s] grandfather and [his] dad had already contract for the piece of property north of Cary hall and where the stadium is today… and [his] dad said ‘Well what are we going to do about that? Where are we going to go? We need more housing and we both have a problem.’ And Ross said ‘Well go find a piece of ground and we’ll work it out.’ … and so they took a gamble and David Ross bought the piece of ground and traded it for the land for which the stadium is built. 1925. And they developed a subdivision. I have to give my dad and my grandfather credit, they did it properly…” (Jim Shook, Interview)

These traded lands became Ross­Ade stadium and Hills and Dales. The Shook agency, the land developers who ended up with the piece of hilly topography that was once considered undesirable, looked at the hills and dales of their plot of land and decided to develop a neighborhood.

A few years after development started, the Great Depression struck the nation. However, national and small town politics are not always the same. Hills and Dales and the rest of West Lafayette received fewer scars from the Depression than the rest of the nation. West Lafayette’s economy was university driven and the Depression did not remove universities nor the need for them (Bunder). Purdue University, the main employer in West Lafayette, endured the depression

with only 2 pay cuts: 5%, then 10% (Shook). Such actions were much less drastic than the rest of the nation’s. Even nearby Lafayette had much more of a struggle as stated in the Journal and Courier article, “Poverty: The Way We Were:” “Within three months of the 1929 stock market crash, Lafayette’s Monon Railroad Shops laid off 20 percent of its workforce. Other businesses­­small and large­­ followed suit. [...] 75 percent of the unemployed before 1933, [...] couldn’t get poor relief (Cullen).” The Great Depression could not even stop Hills and Dales from building houses. The development of those first World War homage homes in Hills and Dales was relatively constant until the second World War came along. Development then stalled for a while during the second World War. However, after the war, housing demand exploded (Shook).

Slowing of Development. Yet the demand that exploded was not for Hills and Dales type housing, but for suburban housing. This was the start of a conflict between national housing trends (influencing West Lafayette) and the local housing desires (influencing Hills and Dales). Suburbanization took the nation and West Lafayette too with the dusk of war. Now, Purdue University’s continued expansion worked against Hills and Dales’ desires. With more students came the need for more housing but West Lafayette went with population dense suburban apartments over homey European influenced family homes. This clashed with the style of Hills and Dales and other historic architecture. As an even greater affront to the traditional styles of housing, houses were converted to rentals or destroyed to make way for the suburban apartments (New Chauncey Neighborhood Plan). This had to be done because land is scarce, and though community members of Hills and Dales want to uphold the “integrity and value” that their area has (Shook), Purdue University just needed the living space. Although Purdue University is still

expanding and little has occurred to alleviate the concerns of Hills and Dales residents, Hills and Dales still stands the test of time. In 2002, due to the successful preservation of Hills and Dales homes, the United States Department of the Interior bequeathed to Hills and Dales the title of Historic District (“Hills and Dales Neighborhood”). 

Residents

Residential Concerns. Another important detail to recognize is the demographic of Hills and Dales’ initial residents. Firstly, the Hills and Dales community instituted a restrictive covenant that prevented individuals of low economic status and people of color from living there. That

 really changed the way the neighborhood developed. Even today, with the restrictive covenant removed, the 

demographic remains primarily white and primarily University staff. Peter Bunder also remarked that “folks 

there had more money than the people in the rest of the town”. This may be a part of the equation as to why 

the residents’ desires regarding the building of sidewalks were respected throughout the years. Of course, 

there are other factors that likely played an even larger role, such as the fact that they are the people who live

 in the area itself and who would almost certainly put the most effort into being heard in regards to the issue.

 It is also important to remember that Purdue most certainly dwarfs Hills and Dales (as well as the other local

neighborhoods) in terms of influence derived from wealth. It is hard to imagine that all of the West Lafayette

neighborhoods combined would be able to match Purdue’s 2.443 billion dollar endowment (Purdue 

University Endowment Fund). However, the University’s monetary advantage has not always served as an 

overwhelming factor in conflict resolution, such as during the initial development of the neighborhood when 

Purdue wanted to become part of the the Big Ten.

Peter Bunder called Hills and Dales the first suburb in the area and Wes Shook would say that Hills and Dales had more of a country rural feel. Being a peculiar rural suburb in the West Lafayette area provided Hills and Dales with unique characteristics of quietness and seclusion as well as a location within close vicinity of the campus, something desired by the University’s residents. The neighborhood still values its isolation and exclusivity enough that it is in no hurry to add sidewalks, in spite of the fact that it is no longer in a heavily rural area. According to Peter Bunder, “you can see some of that today, there is no sidewalks, there is a lot of screaming and yelling whenever the city attempts to put safe paths to school, sidewalks in”. The resistance to

sidewalks tells about the local politics. The close vicinity of the neighborhood to Purdue’s campus makes it extremely convenient for the University’s staff to get to work easily, but the neighborhood’s rural ostracization also allows residents to live quietly and raise a family outside the otherwise active and sometimes rambunctious lifestyle that naturally occurs nearby a large University such as Purdue. One could surmise that the creation of sidewalks and other activities that would reduce the neighborhoods relative isolation may make it less appealing to University faculty. Politically speaking, we can see already that the two major parties in this community are Purdue (and its students) and the residents of surrounding West Lafayette, including Hills and Dales. There is a balance between the University’s agenda and the desires of the community that is evaluated and maintained every time there is a change that affects either party.

Even when analyzing the land swap between David Ross and the Shook agency, one can see the balance between University and the community. In that arrangement, the way things were done in the negotiation were much more informal, and really seemed to have less tension than many land disputes that can be found elsewhere . Both Purdue and the Shook family got what they wanted with a simple trade of equivalent value, seemingly without struggle. This also says something about the nature of local politics during this era. The way that people dealt with local problems during that time seemed kinder and more negotiable. Having small towns meant that the community was much more intimate, which increased the empathy that people felt for each other. As a result people were more inclined towards reaching a satisfactory end result for as many parties as possible with compromise. On the contrary, National level politics, even­more­so International, deals with many more interests and naturally, because of the lack of

direct empathy, compromise can seem much less attractive since parties cannot intimately see the effect of decisions on their opposition.

However national and small town politics are not always so far apart. People in Hills and Dales identified with their nation, felt pride and love for it. This is seen in that during the founding of Hills and Dales, a scant few years after the first World War, residents decided they wanted architectural styles that symbolically connected them to their own nation and its allies (Curtis). And so, the predominant architectural styles in Hills and Dales are Colonial Revival, Tudor Revival, and French Eclectic (“Hills and Dales Neighborhood”).

The primary concern of residents in the community in regards to their home ownership appears to be property taxes. That is a very well founded concern, especially since Hills and Dales is what is referred to as a TIF district. TIF is an acronym that stands for Tax Increment Financing. What it essentially means is that, as the property values within the neighborhood increase, extra property taxes can be collected allowing the local governments to collect more revenue. This is not necessarily the case in all neighborhoods, where devices such as tax caps can prevent governments from collecting as much money as they would otherwise like (Bunder).

Naturally, Hills and Dales would prefer to pay less property tax, especially since their properties are already considered to be fairly valuable and, therefore, income taxes are probably relatively steep. Tax concerns for West Lafayette as a whole are substantiated by the fact that research at the West Lafayette public library yielded more political articles concerning tax statistics than any other single category.

The obstacle of property taxes does not prevent Hills and Dales residents from wanting to preserve their property values, which are fairly high. In fact, there are currently four one­story

houses within the community for sale, and their prices range from $129,900 to $219,000. (realtor.com). It is likely that much of this value comes the state of the neighborhood, so residents do not take kindly to events that may affect alter the neighborhood’s state of being, such as in the previously discussed Lindberg Road fiasco of 1989.

Public Individuals. There are a fair amount of Hills and Dales residents who have run for public office over the years. This is logical since the community is full of individuals with the resources, intelligence, and community concern needed to enter into the political arena. One example of such a man is Mr. Gerald Thomas. He is a former Purdue University basketball player and Purdue alumni who ran for City Council for the first time in 2007 and has held the office for the last two election cycles (Meeks). Another notable individual is Randy Truit, who currently represents the local area as a member of the Indiana House of Representatives in the state capital of Indianapolis. Mr. Truit has a couple of relatives who have a history in politics as well (Schenkel).

Discoveries

The political history of the Hills and Dales neighborhood reveals several relationships involving the community that have done a great deal to define it politically. One is the relationship between Hills and Dales and Purdue University. This relationship is one that simultaneously benefits and harms the neighborhood. The University benefits the neighborhood in several ways. Purdue is and historically has been the neighborhood’s number one employer, with many of the residents working either as a professor at the University or as some other faculty member. The University is also home to some Purdue Alumni and others who, via their background, have a direct interest in the continued success of the University (Bunder).

However, the University’s success has also led to the University’s expansion, bringing it in close geographical proximity to Hills and Dales and leading to some interesting occurrences. For example, a Purdue student once invaded a Hills and Dales home. He did not do it because he had anything malicious in mind. He did it because he was in such a drunken stupor that he thought that the home was actually Cary dormitory. This dorm is only a few block away from Hills and Dales, which helped to facilitate the incident (Smith).

A more neutral way in which Purdue has affected Hills and Dales is the University’s recent joining of West Lafayette. This directly led to a redistricting of the city, which went into effect during the 2015 local election. Since the new rules included a 7,000 resident per district requirement, Hills and Dales is now a part of a district that is more spread out than its prior one and includes much of eastern New Chauncey. An additional change brought about by the annexation of Purdue is that the West Lafayette City Council has expanded. There are now six council districts with three at large positions, while there used to be only five council districts with two at large positions (Bunder). The impact of these changes on both Hills and Dales and the local government remains to be seen.

The second relationship that helps to define Hills and Dales politically is its relationship with the rest of West Lafayette. The Hills and Dales is very politically connected to the rest of the city. In fact, West Lafayette became a city the same year that Hills and Dales was first founded. There has never been one in the absence of the other. With the exception of a homeowners association, which among other things organizes some community events, the West Lafayette city government has always been the most local government of which Hills and Dales has been a member. This is true for the other segments of West Lafayette as well, and acts as a strong tie between them (Bunder).

The final overarching idea to be discussed can best be described as past Hills and Dales versus present Hills and Dales, or how Hills and Dales has changed overtime. Surprisingly, the community has not changed as much over the decades as one might think, politically speaking.

Some things have certainly changed. For example, there is no restrictive covenant anymore, or at least not one that is enforced in any evident way. However, the neighborhoods attitude towards certain issues such as Purdue University’s growth and the potential addition of sidewalks show that sentiments reflected by the restrictive covenant, such as a need to protect the neighborhood against dangerous outside influence, may in fact still be present (Bunder).

The most likely explanation for this consistency of the neighborhoods political values is probably derived from the fact that there is also consistency in the community’s demographic. Hills and Dales was founded as a residential community. With the possible exception of the Church of the Good Shepherd, Hills and Dales is still completely residential. The community was originally settled largely by Purdue professors looking to live away from the hustle and bustle of the school. Today, professor is still the most common career to be found among residents. Hills and Dales was founded as a white community. Although there are minorities who live there, it is still predominantly white. There is no evidence regarding a major demographic change at any point in the neighborhoods history. This enduring of values is not uncommon in small town neighborhoods, in fact, it is expected according to Rev. Bunder, who stated that, “This place was small. This place is still small, and it’s that size and homogeneity that give the place its identity. So, it is very stable in terms of its structure. It’s very stable in terms of its ideology.”

Importance

A beautiful part about being human is the ability of choice. With the ability to think freely however, comes conflict and democracy. For eons, ever since the birth of communication, politics has played an enormous role in the development of the human race and the course of its

 

 history.   However, in the ever ­rapidly growing population, much of the politics of local communities gets

 drowned out by the buzz of mass media, as the issues of a single city or town very rarely bears any 

importance for outsiders.

So why document the local politics of a town if the profitability is low and the scope of importance is narrow? The answer is that the information will, none the less, be of value to someone. Though the rest of the world may not care so much about the housing conflicts involved with putting up a new apartment complex in a town that barely anyone has heard of, the residents of the area care. The documentation of people’s lives, embodied by their memories of happiness, conflict, and sense of community, deserves to have a place in the local records or library for future generations to have access. It preserves the value behind the land that future generations will inherit and allows a level of respect for it.

For students of Purdue University, it is often easy to forget that there is more to West Lafayette than the school itself. One would suspect that this fact holds for a student at any institution of higher learning in a “college town”. It can be easy to forget that there are many permanent residents of West Lafayette, whose heritage is to be respected and whose accomplishments are to be championed. It is hoped that this study paints a picture of the political history of a neighborhood that one could argue has been unfairly ignored by individuals either passing by or passing through. This picture may not be the most unique. This picture may not be the most surprising. This picture may not always be the most flattering. However, this picture contains the essence of many of the political values and relationships that are important to Hills and Dales and the historical context of these facets. It exists for the benefit of Hills and Dales, the benefit of West Lafayette, the benefit of Purdue University, and the benefit of anyone who

 

 feels inclined to enlighten themselves on the background of a very special West Lafayette neighborhood.

Many questions have successfully been answered about the previously almost undocumented political history of Hills and Dales. However there are still many questions left unanswered about other neighborhoods in towns all over the world. Bear in mind the value of the answers to these questions and the remarkable secrets they may reveal.