Great-great-great-granddaughter takes reins at historic Fowler House
Keeping 19th century mansion Moses Fowler built open was a matter of coming full circle for family. Memories with her grandfather, instigator of the Prohibition-era Crock Club, spurred the decision
Thanks to The Arts Federation for its support of today’s Based in Lafayette edition. Food, Drink, Music and Art: Celebrate the arts at the TASTE of Tippecanoe on June 17, 6 p.m.-midnight in downtown Lafayette. Presale tickets are only $5. Purchase tickets at TAF or online at tasteoftippecanoe.org/buy-tickets.
MOSES FOWLER DESCENDENT TAKES REINS AT FOWLER HOUSE MUSEUM
Joyce Schilli refers to her reintroduction to the Fowler House as coming full circle.
When she was growing up in Indiana, her grandfather, Joseph C. Fowler Sr., would take her to Arni’s, then to Frozen Custard near Columbian Park before swinging by to spend the rest of the day at the Tippecanoe County Historical Association museum in the Fowler House at 10th and South streets.
“And he told me the different stories of what it was like growing up there,” Schilli said.
Joe Fowler was the youngest son of Cecil Fowler, head of the last family to live in the mansion, and the great-grandson of Lafayette businessman Moses Fowler, who had it built in 1852. Schilli said her grandfather would talk about the various rooms, how as a kid he would climb down the steep attic steps on his hands and how, during Prohibition in the 1920s, he’d converted two rooms in the basement into party rooms he dubbed the “Crock Club.” The Crock Club was a spot where, for 50 cents, Purdue students could come and drink beer and buy nickel hamburgers cooked up by groundskeeper Shorty Emmons.
Cecil and Louise Fowler were the last of the family to live in the mansion on the edge of downtown Lafayette, moving out in 1941 when children were adults and selling the property to the Tippecanoe County Historical Association, according to TCHA and 1852 Foundation histories of the house.
“Even as an adult, when I came back to Indiana, I stopped at the museum as homage to my grandfather,” Schilli, who moved to Texas when she was still in high school in 1991, said.
So, when Schilli saw posts this spring that the Fowler House – renovated into restaurant and event hosting space in recent years – was going to close June 1, she said she contacted Matt Jonkman, president of the 1852 Foundation that purchased the mansion from TCHA in 2015.
“I told him how I felt about the house,” Schilli said. “We just started taking, and the puzzle pieces fell in place.”
On Monday, a night chosen because it would have been Joseph Fowler’s 108th birthday, Schilli is scheduled to take over as president of the 1852 Foundation board. (They’re taking reservations for the event, from 5-9 p.m. Monday, here.)
Schilli, who owns a Maaco body shop franchise in Lafayette as well as a couple of transportation businesses where she lives in East Texas, said she intends to keep the restaurant and events business going, much as they have in recent years.
“It’s a celebration,” Schilli said. “I want people to come out have a good time, because that's what he was all about, people being happy and having a good time.”
What that means about ongoing disputes about the mansion’s property tax status and other factor is something that will come later, she said.
Schilli declined to release terms of the deal to transfer control of the 1852 Foundation.
Jonkman, who helped create the 1852 Foundation when his family bought the Fowler House in 2015, initially announced in March that operations would end June 1. At the time, he said an ongoing dispute over property taxes was to blame. Jonkman said he disagreed with the county’s decision to erase a property tax exemption for the Fowler House, as it transitioned further from a museum to food service and weddings. Even as the Property Tax Assessment Board of Appeals considered Fowler House’s case for this year, Jonkman said he wasn’t prepared to go through the same legal battle the next year.
According to county property tax records, the Fowler House is on the hook for $24,527 in 2022 property taxes, to be paid in 2023. The property, assessed at $954,100, was listed with an “educational” deduction in the years before that, putting the total at zero. County Assessor Eric Grossman has defended lifting the exemption, saying that just because the Fowler House is run by a nonprofit organization and is in a historic property doesn’t mean it’s free of property taxes.
Schilli said she didn’t have a set plan for dealing with that question other than “finding what’s best for the house and what’s best for the city of Lafayette.”
Jonkman said Schilli stepping in was the “right person and the right motivation, I think.”
The Jonkmans created the 1852 Foundation and bought the Fowler House from Tippecanoe County Historical Association, after it moved its museum from the site.
Moses Fowler was a contemporary and early partner of John Purdue, a Lafayette businessman and namesake for the university. Fowler dealt in dry goods, farmland and banking. According to the TCHA description at the mansion's wooden doors, the house Fowler built was a symbol that he "was anxious to have a home reflecting his social status.”
According to accounts from 2015, part of the sale included a 25-page compilation of covenants that limit what can and cannot be done with the property. TCHA worked with Indiana Landmarks, an Indianapolis-based nonprofit dedicated to historic preservation, to come up with the list of restrictions attached to the real estate listing.
Among them: The buyer couldn't raze or subdivide the property; nothing permanent could be erected that "impairs the visibility from street level of the facades:” any repairs or reconstruction had to be made in accordance with the "Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation and Guidelines for Rehabilitating Historic Buildings;” and a list of specific features — from woodwork trim hand-carved on site during construction to specific light fixtures to exterior color — couldn't be removed or changed.
The Fowler House also is in a local historic district, so the exterior and grounds are protected that way, too.
Since then, Jonkman said his family had put $2 million to preserve, maintain and improve the Fowler House.
Schilli said her mother, Louise, Joseph Fowler Sr.’s daughter, will also be on the 1852 Foundation board of directors.
She said she understands maintenance and renovations will have to continue, including the roof and hopes of getting fountains on the grounds in working condition. She said she also hopes to renovate some of the bedrooms upstairs, getting them ready for school field trips and opening them more readily for public tours.
“It’s a fascinating house, and no matter how old you are, it’s one of a kind,” Schilli said. “It’s going to be fun and adventurous for myself and the rest of the Fowler family.”
THIS AND THAT …
TOURS STARTING FOR LAFAYETTE’S PUBLIC SAFETY CENTER: Lafayette will begin public tours of its $51 million Public Safety Center on Wednesdays, starting June 7. The city had ribbon-cutting ceremonies last week for the new police station and parking garage at Sixth and Columbia streets in downtown Lafayette. The tours will be available at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. each Wednesday in June and July. Registration is mandatory, and attendance is capped at 15 people per tour. To register, go to the Lafayette Police Department’s Facebook page or by going to: www.brownpapertickets.com/event/6032531
For more about the new facility: “Lafayette shows off $51M Public Safety Center.”
PURDUE TRUSTEE APPOINTMENTS: Gov. Eric Holcomb reappointed Gary Lehman and Michael Klipsch to three-year terms as Purdue trustees Thursday, extending their terms through July 1, 2026. Holcomb also appointed Kevin Boes to a two-year term as the student member of the board.
Lehman, a 1974 Purdue graduate and retired chairman of the board for Oerlikon Fairfield, is a Lafayette resident and has been a trustee since 2010.
Klipsch, a 1985 Purdue graduate from Carmel, has been a trustee since 2015. He is co-founder of Klipsch-Card Athletic Facilities LLC, which develops and manages sports parks and fieldhouses.
Boes, of Great Falls, Montana, is a Ph.D. student in mechanical engineering. He will replace Mark Gee, a Purdue graduate student in agricultural and biological engineering.
Thanks, again, for support from The Arts, which is preparing for the Taste of Tippecanoe on June 17 in downtown Lafayette. For discount admission, go to tasteoftippecanoe.org/buy-tickets.
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5 % tax for events starts in 5 years and should be subtracted to the Real Estate bill to aid and abet progress and create jobs and income to keep the House in tip top shape.
Jeffrey V. Hoon
$24,527 In the intrest for having a thriving restaurant tours and special events anniversary wedding ect
the Tax Asseror needs to reduce this real estate tax to $2,452.00. for 10 years and add 10 percent every 5 years raise the RETax 10 % until tax stabilizes at 14,000.00 and put a 5% tax on any event at Fowler pays commerce tax.