Saving the Fitzgerald House

Once destined to rot, the Fitzgerald House has been renovated, sold and is a new beacon for historic preservation in downtown Lafayette. Preserving Historic Lafayette’s Sean Lutes tells the story

About today’s edition: On Saturday, Preserve Historic Lafayette will help host an open house for the recent renovation of the Fitzgerald House at Eighth and Columbia streets in downtown Lafayette. I asked Sean Lutes, a local historic preservationist and downtown advocate, to walk through some of the history of the building and what it took to finally save a house that seemed destined to rot. Here’s his account.

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SAVING THE FITZGERALD HOUSE

By Sean Lutes / For Based in Lafayette

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(Photo: Dave Bangert)

The Fitzgerald House at the corner of Eighth and Columbia streets has been for years the elusive white whale of Lafayette’s historic preservation world. The edifice, rotting away, had become something of a symbol of historic preservation's decline in the community. Many of us, including myself at times, believed that demolition was the inevitable outcome.

Yet, today the Fitzgerald House, with its freshly painted white walls, shines as a gateway structure into downtown. New windows stand alongside restored cornices and limestone details, while crews put the finishing touches on the luxurious home.

How did we get here? And how did the Fitzgerald escape the clutches of demolition that took so many other endangered historic landmarks of our Old City?

The story of the house itself is one of foggy beginnings, aristocratic parties, musical interludes, LGBTQ survival and more. 

The precise date of the home’s construction is unclear. While the faded plaque on the exterior says 1863, other research suggests 1872 as a more likely date of construction. Here’s what we know: In 1867 the Zinn family (prominent dry goods merchants) purchased the property at 717 Columbia St. from Thomas Alyward for $4,050. We know a house of some sort was on the site, but this could have easily been an older pre-Civil War home of more modest proportions and design. 

To complicate the 1863 claim further was an 1872 newspaper blurb announcing that the Zinn family was erecting a handsome brick edifice at the corner of Columbia and Seventh. This was likely a typo, as the irregular layout of Eighth and Seventh streets in Lafayette’s grid led to consistent confusion by both visitors and locals alike, and all subsequent articles refer to the Zinn home at Eighth and Columbia. Furthermore, the French Second Empire style of the house is more in tune with the architecture of Lafayette in 1872 than 1863. The Zinn family expanded the house at the turn of the century, adding the characteristic corner tower to the edifice.

The Zinn home was the site of many social affairs, including a wedding reception in 1900 that included a guest list of over 300 notable Lafayette residents crowded into the house. However, as the years passed the Zinn family moved away from their family home, instead settling in the newer suburbs of Highland Park and Wallace Triangle. By 1912 the old Zinn home was purchased by Miss Lena Baer, who converted the grand abode into the new home of the Lafayette Conservatory of Music. The ballroom on the third floor that had served as the epicenter of the Zinn’s social gatherings was now the site of small concerts and dance lessons, while musical lessons occurred on the lower floors.

It remained a musical school for years, bringing musical talent into Lafayette life for decades. By 1953, Lena Baer passed, and the property changed hands a couple of times before 1964, when none other than William Fitzgerald II, an eccentric hairdresser, purchased the property to move his growing beauty salon into. This figure, dressed in the latest fashions, jewels and furs, is the most iconic individual to shape the Fitzgerald House, after all, it’s his name we associate with the property.

From the J&C, 1964

Much personal knowledge would have been lost of Bill Fitzgerald had it not been for the input of friends that still live, and for that I am deeply thankful for their input.

Fitzgerald was an early open figure of Lafayette’s LGBTQ+ story. His world became a haven for gay culture and life in an otherwise intolerant period of history. Fitzgerald gained social status not only through his skills (rooted in his training in Italy and France) but also the gossip of his customers (many married to powerful figures in the community) who came to his salon. It was at the “House of Fitzgerald” these ladies spilled their husband’s secrets and family matters over shampooing and perms. Access to the city’s confidential details likely protected him from the malice of figures who, while intolerant, didn’t want their less savory details spilled out into the gossiping circles of Lafayette. However, make no mistake, homophobia and intolerance were prevalent, and Fitzgerald would have been subject to them as much as anyone else. 

From the J&C, 1977.

Fitzgerald lived on the third floor of 717 Columbia St. before passing away in 2000. The years that followed led the house through a period of flux and decline. The historic house needed substantial work, and no one seemed able to accomplish a thorough restoration of the house. Early efforts merely stripped surviving details from the interior, leaving it largely as a shell through most of the 2010s. 

By 2020 the house had been listed as an endangered structure repeatedly, and most were convinced the house was beyond salvaging.

In 2021 the house was purchased by Savannah Crow, an up-and-coming real estate developer who planned to renovate the historic home into high-end apartments alongside her father, but following his untimely passing the project’s future became unclear. However, in the 11th hour in late 2023, I made a phone call to John Teibel, a local builder who had done numerous projects, including the Centennial rowhouses. He agreed to coffee with Savannah and her business partner, Erin Lucas, and a partnership was formed. Teibel would renovate the house while Blackbird House (Savannah and Erin) would retain ownership with the parties splitting the proceeds from the sale accordingly. 

Amid the renovations, before and after, at the Fitzgerald. (Photos provided)

Suddenly the Fitzgerald, the “beyond repair” home so many assumed lost, was alive with crews. When the vines were pulled off the walls and the first dabble of fresh white paint was applied to its exterior, the edifice sprang to life like a patient being given electric shock, and bit by bit we watched as the Fitzgerald went from being the saddest house downtown to arguably its most attractive, no longer a blight on locals and visitors as they made their way down Columbia, but a sought after residence sold before it ever hit the market. 

While not every historic preservation battle has a happy ending, this one does. The house has become a symbol of historic preservation’s revived vigor in Lafayette and the ongoing prosperity and success of our beautiful downtown. 

• If you go: The Fitzgerald open house is from 5-8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 21. Tickets are $20 a person. If interested, email historiclafayette@gmail.com and include your name and the names of your guests. Tickets will not be sold at the door. Proceeds from the open house go to the Wabash Valley Trust for Historic Preservation.

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Sean Lutes is a local historic preservationist and downtown advocate. For more, here’s a Q&A from 2022 with Lutes and the work being done to expand historic districts in and near downtown Lafayette: “Out to save Old City Lafayette, one property at a time.”

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Tips, story ideas? I’m at davebangert1@gmail.com.