The Elmer Wilhelm House with some old snow on the ground. This bungalow style home was built in 1927 (confirmed by consulting list of La Porte Historic District contributing sites... some sources said 1931; seems to be a confusion with fact it was renovated that year.) Elmer H. Wilhelm, son of Alderman John C. Wilhelm, was the junior member of the enterprising grocery firm of Baumann & Wilhelm and later served on the LaPorte City Council during the 1930s and as a LaPorte Probation Officer from 1935-1952. He was a popular member of the Maple Leaf Club and Maple City court, No. 125, Tribe of Ben Hur. Tribe of Ben Hur - what's that you say? Glad you asked ;) The Tribe of Ben Hur was a fraternal organization formed in the 1890s based on the novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Lew Wallace. They accepted both women and men equally as members. Ben Hur, being one of most widely read and commercially successful of all nineteenth-century novels, inspired a fairly strong following and by 1897 the Tribe was present in Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, California, Oregon and Washington state. In the 1920s it operated in thirty states and membership naturally skyrocketed after the 1925 MGM silent film, a blockbuster of its time (second film adaption of the novel; the first was in 1907.) Aside from the Ben Hur theme, it was essentially like a lot of other mutual benefit societies of the time. In 1930 it became the Ben-Hur Life Association; still maintaining its rituals and ties to the novel that inspired it. Membership dropped drastically in the 60s-70s. By the 1980s, Ben-Hur Life Association was essentially little more than a life insurance company with fraternal roots. In 1988, the association officially disbanded the fraternity, converted to a mutual insurance company and changed its name to USA Life Insurance Company of Indiana. (In 1990, changed name to USA Life One Insurance Company of Indiana, after another similar named company objected.) None of which has anything to do with the house, but I think it covered nicely for not having any info about the architect to share ;) Best viewed full size. Thanks for looking & commenting. Previous Photo: ----------- * RangeRiderRichard's Photo Albums: Architecture | Atmosphere & Mood | Landscapes | Critters | Flowers & Plants | Miscellaneous | Food | Artwork | Poetry | Holidays | People