By Beth Clark
The Kincaid House, the historic brick building at the corner of 106th Street and Kincaid Drive in Fishers, is on its way to a save. Threatened with demolition on June 9th, an order which was quickly stayed by development and construction company Thompson Thrift after protest by Indiana Landmarks and the Noblesville Preservation Alliance, the house has a new home on land donated by loan management company Navient along USA Parkway. The relocation site has been secured and funds are being collected to get the house rolling to its new home on Saturday, October 4.
The House is being prepared for relocation less than half a mile down the road from its current site by Wolfe House and Building Movers from North Manchester, Indiana. The foundation of the house has recently been dug out and steel beams have been inserted through the basement windows and walls of the house to lift it onto a flatbed moving truck.
New site work, including pouring a concrete foundation at the house’s future location on USA Parkway, begins next week and will take at least one week to complete. The day of the move, the Indiana Department of Transportation will close a section of 106th Street on the east side of I-69 the morning of October 4. The move is estimated to take two to three hours.
The cost of moving the house is roughly $115,000, although final costs are expected to come in below this estimate. This includes all of the costs of moving the historic structure and prepping the new site with a new foundation. An Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign was created at the end of August by Nickel Plate Arts and the Noblesville Preservation Alliance, with assistance from Hamilton County Tourism, to raise public funds to help move the Kincaid House. The goal is $30,000 by September 30.
Brenda Myers, Executive Director of Hamilton County Tourism, acknowledges that the crowdfunding campaign has raised just under $6000, still far below the set goal, and affirms that, “We will continue to fundraise to offset some of the costs of relocating this historic building, while we also are looking at ways to keep costs to a minimum and to seek out alternative funding sources in order to accomplish what we all set out to do, which was save the Kincaid House.”
The move is being funded by the following contributions: $20,000 from Thompson Thrift Development; $20,000 from expected private business donations and grants including $2,500 from Indiana Landmarks; $30,000 goal for public gifts made on Indiegogo, and $30,000 in matching funds from Hamilton County Tourism, Inc.
Any money donated, which is tax deductible, will go toward moving and renovating the Kincaid House. Visit www.movethekincaidhouse.org, to make a donation or share ideas about how the Kincaid House can be used.
