Historical Images of Porter County

Lewry Residence, Built in 1863
Furnessville, Indiana

Date: Circa 1930
Source Type: Photograph
Publisher, Printer, Photographer: Unknown
Postmark: Not applicable
Collection: Trent D. Pendley
Remark: This circa 1930 photograph of the Lewry house, constructed in 1863, shows the original porch that was removed a few years later. Well-known local artist Hazel Hannell painted the house in 1931 with four people visiting in the front garden. The house would again be painted for its centennial in 1964 by Columbia Studios artist Daniel McKee of California, and also in 2001 by the Wyeth-Hurd prodigy David Rogers of Santa Fe, New Mexico. The Lewry house was one of a few Furnessville homes facing the old Michigan Central Railroad tracks that did not have to be moved with the coming construction of the Dunes Relief Highway (US Highway 20) in the 1930s. The Furness mansion, the Welke house, and the Lewry house were far enough north and out of the path of the highway. By December 1938, the house became empty while Henry Lewry’s estate slowly was settled. Some of the furnishings that had mostly been procured from John M. Smith furniture in Chicago were reportedly stolen. During the period from 1940 through 1974, antique collectors Edwin and Bernice Burke reappointed the house with vintage antiques, including a settee by George Belter of New York. All but four acres of the original estate are now part of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.

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Image and related text prepared by Steven R. Shook