Favorite Friday: McKay House

Surely, it's happened to you, too. You've passed and re-passed an historic and/or boarded up home and it somehow captures your imagination. It possesses that certain 'je ne sais quoi.' For me, this is one of those enigmatic locations. A regal brick Queen Anne on the corner of 13th & Broadway nestled in the heart of the Old Northside...I present for your architectural viewing pleasure: the McKay mansion. Built by the Horace McKay Family in 1886. Boarded up since...no idea when!

Clearly, it's been awhile. See pictures from the IUPUI Digital Collection--
Here from 1982:

http://indiamond6.ulib.iupui.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/IHAS&CISOPTR=1055&CISOBOX=1&REC=19

http://indiamond6.ulib.iupui.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/IHAS&CISOPTR=1053&CISOBOX=1&REC=18

And here from 1979:

http://indiamond6.ulib.iupui.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/IHAS&CISOPTR=1057&CISOBOX=1&REC=20

An Agnes M'Culloch Hanna article (one in a fantastic series available in a clipping file near you) from November 1929 featured this captivating home and provided much interesting information on the home and its residents. Seems there were a multitude of artists in the family, so my hope for this architectural gem is to be once again inhabited by artists or at least those appreciative of art. McKay daughter and artist Cornelia, carved three of the original mantelpieces from quartered oak which Mr. McKay ordered from the same firm that furnished wood for the Indiana State Capitol. Her handiwork was also to be found on the doors to the bookshelves and window and door casings in the library and other rooms of the home. Might any of this remain within?

Did Cornelia McKay carve this door? Inquiring minds want to know.

While I'm imagining the interiors of the McKay home, I have to wonder if daughter Helen McKay was still wearing this dress when she took up residence here.

As with most of my research (as regular H.I. blog followers already know), I continue to seek any connection to Virginia Keep Clark, and indeed, found one in the McKay family. Helen, also a burgeoning artist, and Virginia Keep were two of the first five teachers at the John Herron Art Institute--they instructing childrens' classes. Readers not inclined to follow my obscure connections to my passion project might better recognize Helen McKay by her married name, Mrs. Brandt Steele. As in: Brandt Steele, well known arts and crafts pottery maker and son of Hoosier group artist, T.C. Steele. In fact, the wedding reception of the newlyweds Mr. & Mrs. Brandt Steele was held in this home.

I am consumed with curiosity as to how kind the years may or may not have been to this boarded beauty. When the family resided here, it was replete with the art work of family members, each member of the famed Hoosier Group and various others. Mr. & Mrs. McKay were staunch supporters of art and charter members of the old "College Corners Club," one of the first clubs in the city and presumably one consumed with the enjoyment and promotion of art.

Within the context of time and place, I am fascinated with how progressive this family was. Mrs. McKay wrote a book about the 54th Massachusetts regiment of black soldiers during the Civil War "as a result of many years interest in the subject." Does the movie "Glory" ring a bell?--that is precisely the regiment she wrote about. What would have precipitated this interest in an upper-middle class Midwestern house wife in the late 1800's? She had previously published a book reporting on the accomplishments of women's clubs in Indiana. As of 1929, when Mrs. McKay still resided in the home, this reference book was evidently still available in reference libraries. (My cursory search yielded nothing, sorry.)

"An outstanding quality of this house has been its hospitality through many years," says Agnes M'Culloch Hanna. "...for the most part Mr. and Mrs. McKay preferred informal dinners, after which some friend of the family would read aloud a paper on some cultural subject, and share it with his friends in this pleasant way." One can well imagine this scenario played out in this grand home in its past and future.

And since I'm one of those people always looking for connections, I must admit that I reflect on the Brandt Steele family making their way from their shady corner of the world in Woodruff Place (811 East Drive) to visit the McKay family homestead in College Corners. Or how relatively close their mortal remains in glorious Crown Hill Cemetery.

Last I knew, this serenely situated abode was for sale through the lovely Joe Everhart.

I really want to get inside this house! If I ever do, perhaps revisit this topic...or if she ever gets properly restored. I have my eye on you, McKay House!