Crowdfunding campaign seeks to move historic house

Nickel Plate Arts and the Noblesville Preservation Alliance are kicking off a crowdfunding campaign to move the historic Flanagan House in Fishers.

As IBJ reported last week, student-loan firm Navient donated two acres of land on the west side of its Fishers campus to accommodate the 153-year-old brick house, which was slated to be demolished to make way for new development.

Now located at the southwest corner of 106th Street and Kincaid Drive just east of Interstate 69, the structure—also known as the Kincaid House—was spared at the 11th hour at the urging of Indiana Landmarks and the Noblesville preservation group.

If organizers can raise an estimated $115,000 needed for site work and transportation, the house will be relocated about a half-mile north, where it’s expected to become a focal point along the interstate.

Developer Thompson Thrift has pledged $20,000 to kick off the fund-raising campaign, and Hamilton County Tourism Inc. said it will match new public donations up to $45,000.

Tax-deductible donations will be accepted at the “Help Move the Kincaid House” campaign website Aug. 23-Sept. 30. The public also can share ideas for future uses for the house on the site.

“We’re grateful for the community support that is rallying behind the house,” Mike Corbett, Noblesville Preservation Alliance treasurer, said in a prepared statement. “Without involvement from Nickel Plate Arts, Hamilton County Tourism, Navient, Indiana Landmarks and Thompson Thrift, Hamilton County would have lost a major piece of history.”

If the Flanagan House campaign is successful, the move would occur this year.

Nickel Plate Arts, an offshoot of the tourism group, recently worked with the Noblesville Preservation Alliance to save two historic South Eighth Street houses—now home to the Nickel Plate Arts Campus.

Hamilton County Tourism also is teaming up with Nickel Plate Arts and the preservation alliance to lead a feasibility study that will determine the best use of the house and land after the relocation.

Details such as ownership and management will be determined once the study is done.

Indiana Landmarks provided a $2,500 grant to determine landscaping and construction options once the house is relocated. Peterson Architecture of Noblesville donated an architectural rendering showing how the house could be situated on the site.

The Flanagan House is an Italianate-style farmhouse built by the Peter Flanagan family in 1861 from clay bricks made on-site. More recently, the house was owned by Dan Kincaid, a descendant of Loma E. Kincaid, the founder of L.E. Kincaid Meat Market in Illinois Street in Indianapolis.

Thompson Thrift and local partners acquired the house along with the rest of the 70-acre Delaware Park commercial subdivision earlier this year. Located near a planned I-69 interchange, the property is zoned for retail, office and industrial use.

This week, Indianapolis-based Sun King Brewing Co. announced plans to build a production facility and craft-beer tasting room on about 13 acres of land in Delaware Park.