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Property Location
Property Features
This building was once used as the headquarters of Baker Manufacturing Company, a regional sales office, a tire warehouse, a single-family residence, and a church.
The building was restored and placed back in service in 2010.
"The one-story Commercial Vernacular building at 15 Antes Drive is now the museum and headquarters of the Evansville Grove Society, and also the office of Evansville Community Partnership. It was constructed on East Church Street in 1897 as the headquarters of the Baker Manufacturing Company. A new headquarters building was constructed by the company in 1940, and this building became a regional sales office. It was later sold to a local cooperative, which used it as a tire warehouse. The building has also served as a single-family residence and as a church. The office to the right-hand side of the front doors was that of company president and founder, Allen S. Baker.
In 1990, the Grove Society purchased the building with the stipulation that it be moved from its original site. On a memorable day in 2001, the building was moved here from the original location -- by truck. The building was restored -- mostly by painstaking volunteer labor -- and placed back in service in 2010. It won a 2011 historic preservation award from the Madison Trust for Historic Preservation.
The white frame building at the west end of the museum grounds is the last surviving tourist cabin in Leota Park. It was purchased by the City in 1938, and installed with several similar cabins to the north side of the Lower Ball Diamond. The original site was poorly drained, and the cabin was moved here in 2012 to permit the Grove Society to restore it and display it to visitors.
On the east side of the museum building is an original "Monitor" brand Baker windmill, donated to the Grove Society by Baker Manufacturing Company in 2010. It is an example of the mills sold by Baker from the 1920s through the late 1940s, and put in service throughout the world. Examples of earlier, wooden Baker mills may be found on display in the Eager Economy Store at 7 East Main Street in downtown Evansville." Evansville Historic Preservation Commission, Historic Evansville Walking Tour brochure, 2014.
National And State Register Of Historic Places Listings
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