Post-Tribune |

Potempa: Free local history ‘virtual tour’ includes fun forgotten facts

Just in my half century of existence, the retail landscape around Valparaiso’s downtown courthouse square has witnessed more than one renaissance. Bustling during the decades of the 1950s and 1960s, by the latter 1970s, the shopping and dining around the Porter County Courthouse streetscape began to diminish. During my college years at Valparaiso University in the early 1990s, Valparaiso’s downtown returned, but only to languish yet again a decade later, before an exciting reemergence starting in 2010.

During these days of homebound quarantine and Indiana state mandated “shelter-in-place” rules because of the novel coronavirus COVID-19, any invitation is welcomed to embrace a mental escape respite and a safe entertaining diversion. Kevin Matthew Pazour, executive director of the Porter County Museum, just a stone’s throw from the Porter County Courthouse square, has spent part of his April dreaming up a wonderful free tour opportunity filled with fun history and facts. It’s an opportunity that doesn’t require leaving the comfort of the living room couch.

“I thought you might get a kick out of some of the audio things we are doing to stay relevant, including this free self-guided audio tour based on a document we found in our collection from 1987,” Pazour told me.

“This written architectural guide we discovered from 1987 highlights 10 stops around the courthouse square in Valparaiso. It was created by Richard Brauer, Debra Griswold, and Wanda Rice as made possible by the Paul O. Tanck Memorial Fund and Department of Art, Valparaiso University.

Lending his own vocals for narration, Pazour recorded the virtual audio tour and has it available to listen to at www.SoundCloud.com/pocomuse along with a clever and fascinating visual-paired component comprised of rare images, sketches and photos as a supplemental visual album on the Porter County Museum’s Facebook page found at www.facebook.com/pg/pocomuse/photos/?tab=album&album_id=2856601124375140

“I’ve been saying our audio presence for serving up history in this format is only as old as this quarantine,” Pazour said.

“We are experimenting with a number of different things. Like all organizations during these times, we are working hard to find ways to remain connected to our past and present for our patrons.”

In addition to the Porter County Courthouse, the Farmers State Bank, the U.S. Post Office building, Old Porter County Jail and Sheriff’s House, First State Bank of Valparaiso, the Memorial Opera House and three-story Lowenstine’s Department Store are among some of the other buildings featured on this 30-minute “tour.”

A consistent key civic landmark of downtowns and county seats, the existing courthouse for Porter County replaced the original wooden structure erected in 1837 which stood adjacent to today’s imposing Indiana limestone structure. The prior wooden building was converted and used as a saloon. Built in 1852 for $132,994, it features classical Greek and Roman architecture, including stately columns and pillars. A devastating fire just two days after Christmas in 1934 resulted in a half million dollars in damage, including destroying the courthouse’s focal point clock tower and mansard roof as designed by architect John Cochran, who was also the architect for the Lake County Courthouse in Crown Point and also the Illinois State Capital building. Enough of the structure was salvaged allowing for building reconstruction, but at a steep price tag, including a fourth floor added and the main entrance lowered to ground level.

One of my favorite features of the tour is the chance to revisit Lowenstine’s Department Store, which always fascinated me during my youth (even though I was bored by my mother’s clothing shopping visits). What drew my attention as a young boy was the store’s interior design, which included an ingenious vacuum tube system of pipes located along the walls for “magically” transporting money with a whoosh, from the cash register stations, up and through the ceiling, to the awaiting hands of the accounting department staff for deposits.

Originally opened as a smaller store building in 1885, the new and larger elegant white-tile exterior facade store was built in 1916 at 57 Franklin St.. Designed to rival the flagship Carson Pirie Scott and Co. Department Store along State Street in downtown Chicago built at about the same time, outer architectural accents and ornamentation included the “JL” initials of owner Jacob Lowenstine. The store closed in 1988 shortly after celebrating a 100th anniversary, and later in the year, was sold to the Highland Department Store chain. In 1996, the store building was destroyed by fire.

Earlier this month, Nancy Van Santen, owner of Piper Children’s Boutique, which she heralded to her customers as “the largest children’s boutique in the Midwest,” announced she is closing the store after 37 years in business. This landmark business anchor, also in close proximity with the Porter County Courthouse, sported signature colorful cloth striped awnings over the store’s large display windows easily spotted along Lincolnway Avenue. Piper boutique will join its longtime haberdashery retail neighbor, David’s Men’s Store, which closed in 2014 after 30 years, and Linkimer’s Shoes, which closed in 1994 after 45 years in operation, to create the next chapter of history for Downtown Valparaiso’s disappearing retail landmarks.

Philip Potempa is a journalist, published author and the director of marketing at Theatre at the Center. He can be reached at pmpotempa@comhs.org.