Greetings and salutations! My name is Brian Dekker and I just bought a really old house. The house was built in 1850 and is located at 907 State Street in Lafayette, Indiana...right at the top of 9th Street Hill and the corner of the Wallace Triangle. Many of you might know this house as The Colonel Ayers Mansion or simply the big yellow house with the white columns. The house is best known for its last resident...Colonel Howard Ayers. Colonel Ayers was the attache to General Douglas MacArthur during WWII, was responsible for regulating and developing the utilities in Japan after the war, and was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun by the Emperor of Japan. Pretty cool, right! Unfortunately, the house has been vacant for over a decade and has fallen into disrepair. This is the fourth house which I have purchased, all of which have been older, historical homes. I just started working on the house this past weekend and I hope to have it "livable" in just a few short months. If you are familiar with the home, then you know that there is a substantial amount of work that needs to be done...but rest assured....it will get done. I do all of my own work and photograph the progress as I go along so I will attach photos of the progress from time to time. Please feel free to drive by and check out the renovations. Cheers!
I like your work. Preserving these homes does a great service to the community! That’s really interesting to learn about this Order of The Rising Sun. Here is a brief description of this award thank to Wiki:
ReplyDeleteThe order is awarded to those who have made distinguished achievements in international relations, promotion of Japanese culture, advancements in their field, development in social/occupational welfare or preservation of the environment.
Thanks for bringing life back to this house. All of us in the 'hood are looking forward to see your progress.
ReplyDeleteScott Gilkey
I live on State St. and I am so happy to see you are restoring this house. I can't wait to see the results.
ReplyDeletewhat are your plans for the furniture and such that you find in the house? are you re-purposing them? or selling them?
ReplyDeleteWe have found a few wonderful pieces and plan to reupholster / restore and incorporate in the house :)
DeleteI cannot wait to view the house tomorrow! This has been on my bucket list so I cannot thank you enough for opening the house up this early in the preservation and restoration! Thank you for allowing us to see a part of history!!
ReplyDelete