I love it when we get a reader sending us an old photo especially with a challenge like this one.
A descendant of William H. Ferguson contacted me with this amazing photo of what could only be described as a mansion and claimed that it was of his house in Evansville. I didn’t recognize but dug in to the history books to see if it indeed was ours.
William Ferguson was a railroad contractor who traveled all over. In November 1889 he drew up plans for a new home on the prestigious Washington Ave. The palatial home was estimated at $25,000 and once completed would be “one of the finest homes in Southern Indiana.”
Unfortunately Ferguson was never able to live in the ornate home. He died in his hotel in Chicago while traveling for work on September 2, 1890. The home was under roof but still had work left to do. But once it was complete, wow! What a house!
His widow lived in the massive residence for some time. In late 1892 / early 1893 it was purchased by Colonel Jordan Giles, a broker who also had a large interest in coal mines around Sturgis, Ky. Giles entertained people there at least for a short while. On December 5, 1893 a massive fire broke out and destroyed the home.
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Initially it was thought that Giles perished in the fire, but that was not the case. The fire was likely caused by live coal on the floor or in a flue. Additionally a frozen water plug caused a delay in fighting the flames. The home was a total loss, but was insured for $12,000. The real loss however was the contents including all of his furnishings and a personal library valued at $10,000. Some law suites emerged trying to settle out the insurance claims so the ruins stood for years as you can see in this fire insurance map from 1895. Col. Giles would move to Kentucky and died later around 1900.
The footprint of the building shown above is an almost perfect match of the building in the old photograph. And so we can conclude that this mystery is solved. Such an amazing building that had a short run in the city’s history.
As a side note, right after the turn of the century, Henry Stockfleth built another grand home on this site at 273 Washington Ave. It stood for over 100 years before being demolished in 2010.
http://historicevansville.com/site.php?id=washington273