Carr House

Description:	Drawing of the Carr House by Juliet A. Peddle, Terre Haute Artist and Architect. THE CARR RESIDENCE, LATER KNOWN AS THE JENCKES HOME, STANDS AT SIXTH AND CRAWFORD. DRAWN BY JULIET A. PEDDLE, TERRE HAUTE ARCHITECT AND ARTIST.The Carr house stands at 625 South Sixth Street on the northwest corner of Sixth and Crawford streets.From all of the evidence available it seems that this house was built by Moses Carr sometime between 1849 and 1854. The map of 1854 shows the house and it is identified by the name Carr. Mr. Carr did not buy the property until 1849, so the construction would have to have taken place during this interval unless, as could be the case, it was built by the preceding owner, Joseph Cooper, who bought the property in 1841 and sold it in 1840. However, the style of the house, even with such changes as have been made, seems much more consistent with the early fifties than the early forties and I believe that it was Carr who built it.Mr. Carr was born in 1815 and in 1858 is listed in the city directory as having a dry goods and grocery store at the corner of Fourth and Walnut streets. A. R. Markle tells me that Moses Carr had on the third floor of this building, a hall called Carr hall, which was used for public gatherings and theatricals. The lower two stories of this building, which is on the northwest corner, are still standing. The 1853 directory gives Mr. Carrs home address as Sixth Street corner of Sheets Street. (Sheets was the early name of Crawford street.In 1860 Mr. Carr died and the property was purchased by George F. Ripley in 1864. Mr. Ripley was a dry goods merchant and a member of the firm of Tueli, Ripley & Deming. He seems to have had a place of importance in the town during these years, but I have found very little information about the family. The directory of 1858 gives Mr. Ripleys residence as corner of Sixth and Cherry and in 1863 he lived on the south side of Mulberry Street between Sixth and Seventh Street. I know nothing of his origin or what happened to him in later years.In 1874 Ray and William Jenckes purchased the house and it has remained in the Jenckes family ever since. Ray and William Jenckes were descendants of the Jenckes, whose early home on the site of Highland Lawn cemetery was the subject of one of these articles a few months ago.I am told that several changes have been made in the exterior of the house. The original front porch was certainly narrower and probably did not project as far as it does today. The width of the original porch can be traced on the brickwork of the front. The uncovered sides of this porch were not original but instead, each of the front windows on the first floor had a wrought, or perhaps a cast iron balcony across it. The outlines of these also can be found on the walls of the house. The small casements at the east end of the north and south walls are later and the porches at the back have been enclosed and otherwise remodeled. The interior has been made into two apartments and though changed still has much of the flavor of the early house.South Sixth Street was just beginning to develop into a choice residence section when this house was built and of the 16 or 18 larger houses that stood south of Ohio Street in 1854, this is one of the very few which survives today.
Origin:	01/01/2005
Contributor(s):	Peddle, Juliet, 1899-1979
Source:	http://indianamemory.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/rose/id/857
Collection:	Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Logan Library
Rights:	http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/
Copyright:	Copyright Undetermined
Subjects:	Architectural drawings Architecture Houses Carr, Moses, 1815-1860 Architecture Domestic Life

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