- Font Size:
- Default font size
- Larger font size
By SUSAN ERLER | Monday, May 08, 1995 | (No comments posted.)
CROWN POINT - When Fred Stults was Lake County sheriff during World War II,
jail inmates had to have ration tickets to get meat, sugar, coffee and shoes.
The jail, built more than a half century earlier, was still in the center of
town in the 200 block of South Main Street, and the Stults family, as had all
sheriffs' families since 1882, lived in the house attached to the jail.
The cozy little home contained a parlor with 12-foot ceilings, a sitting
room, dining room, kitchen and pantry. A main staircase led up to four
bedrooms, each with a glass transom window over the door.
But just beyond the parlor, behind a thick steel door, lay a booking room
and then the jail.
Fred Stults Jr., a lawyer in Gary, recalls living in the home when his
father was sheriff from 1943 to 1946.
The younger Stults was already grown and had come home from the service.
He remembers hearing inmates in the cells behind the house, especially when
they yelled or screamed.
But he also remembers the home's formal dining room and the jail matron, who
cooked the family's meals.
"When I came out of the armed forces, I was skinny. But my father had hired
a matron named Mrs. Sunderman, and she also cooked for my family."
Thanks to Mrs. Sunderman's cooking, "by the time I got done living at the
sheriff's home, I'd outgrown the neck size of my shirts," he said.
Within 10 years of Stults' term as sheriff, the home attached to the jail
had become obsolete. After 1958, the county stopped requiring sheriffs and
their families to live there.
And in 1974, the jail itself had become obsolete, replaced by the new
version that stands on North Main Street in the Lake County Government Center
complex.
Concerned residents have taken the old sheriff's house under their wing and
are working slowly to restore its original look, one of the few existing
examples in the state of the Second Empire architectural style.
Empty and abandoned, the old jail behind the home has become a forlorn
looking structure.
For a while after the county moved out, various entrepreneurs tried to cash
in on the jail's notoriety as the place from which John Dillinger pulled his
daring escape in 1934 by opening shops and a restaurant with a Prohibition-era
theme.
But all attempts failed, and by the late 1980s, the old jail site behind the
home was being eyed as a good location for a parking lot.
City officials talked about demolishing the jail and hoped to offset the
expected $90,000 cost of the project by using federal block grant funds, money
disbursed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
But the plans to demolish the building for a parking lot hit a snag in 1989
when the Old Courthouse Foundation Inc., the group seeking to save the old
sheriff's house, had both the house and the jail placed on the National
Register of Historical places.
The group's plans were to save just the part of the old jail built along
with the house in 1882, and not the 20th century portion.
But once the combined buildings were placed on the register, federal funds
couldn't be used to demolish the jail.
And, since the sheriff's house renovation project received federal grant
money in 1991, any plan to demolish the combined buildings would be subject to
a review of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, department member
Frank Hurdis said.
"It just gives our office a chance to comment, evaluate the project and
determine the effect it's going to have on the historical significance," Hurdis
said.
The 20th century portion of the jail is not particularly significant
architecturally, he said.
"But the combined sheriff's house and jail are an endangered resource. There
are less that 30 in the state that date from before 1930," Hurdis said.
As the parking crunch around the square continues, city officials have again
begun talking about demolishing the old jail for a parking lot, most recently
in February after the city began a crackdown on parking violations around the
square.
Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Gayle Van Sessen said Friday the
agency still considers the project a viable option.
"We'd love to see that happen." But a parking committee looking into the
project hasn't met since early this year, she said.
As Stults Jr., now 83, paged recently through a family scrapbook,
reminiscing about the years his father was sheriff, he said it saddened him to
think that the old jail would be torn down.
"But time has to march on," he said.
"You know I've been in Italy a few times, and I think of all the structures
that are still functional there even though they're centuries old, the Roman
bridges across the Tiber River.
"We in America apparently don't build things for the ages," he said.
Back to story No comments posted.
- It wasn't clear, concise or focused on the topic in the story.
- It was a personal attack, vulgar, explicit or degrading, used actual or implied profanity or contained potentially libelous statements.
- It accused someone of being guilty of a crime.
- It promoted violence or illegal acts.
- It contained telephone numbers or street addresses, or e-mail addresses and links to Web sites other than nwi.com or government agencies.
In no way do these comments represent the views of The Times or Lee Enterprises.
Passionate views, pointed criticism and critical thinking are welcome. Name-calling, crude and profane language and personal abuse are not welcome.
Reader comments will not be edited - they will be approved or declined. They may be used in the print edition of the newspaper.
If you feel a posted comment has violated these guidelines, please email our New Media team the commenter's name, the comment and a link to the article.
For more information please read our Terms of Service.