TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) - Terre Haute has its share of popular landmarks and attractions. There’s Stiffy Green, the legendary ghost dog at the Historical Society Museum, Hulman & Co.’s museum, the Swope Art Museum collection, the arches at Fairbanks Park and the miniature train at Deming Park, to name a just few.
But there’s one landmark you might have never seen or noticed. It’s a tall, stone “lighthouse” just inside the southeast boundary of Deming Park off Keane Lane.
“I was just dumbfounded by how many people don’t even know it’s there,” said Curtis Anderson, whose great-great grandfather, Charles E. “Fish” Reynolds, donated the roughly 18-foot-tall structure to the Izaak Walton League, which used to have “rearing ponds” nearby. A plaque on the lighthouse commemorates Fish’s gift to the league, made Dec. 3, 1935.
In the past few weeks, workers from Maher Contracting have been busy repairing the base of the lighthouse, which had rotted away, Kevin Maher told the Tribune-Star (https://bit.ly/ZHbg8z ). The work cost about $11,000. The Terre Haute Parks Department and Anderson’s family are splitting the expense, said Eddie Bird, superintendent of the parks department.
“It’s just one of those iconic things you don’t see very often anymore,” Bird said of his and the parks board’s interest in restoring the landmark. “It’s one of those pieces you don’t want to see go away.
“I just feel it’s part of the history of Deming Park,” Bird said.
And that it is.
The popular city park was established in 1921 on the east side. In the 1930s, the Izaak Walton League rearing ponds were added to the park, creating a well-landscaped attraction. Around that time, “Fish” Reynolds, an avid sportsman and a Terre Haute city fireman, according to a Terre Haute newspaper of 1936, donated the lighthouse.
When first built, the lighthouse glowed with a gas flame fed by a gas line running through the middle of the structure, Anderson said. Over the years, that deteriorated and the flame went out. Also, the glass windows at the top of the lighthouse protecting the flame were broken out, he said.
The parks department, using a solar-powered light, installed a lamp in the lighthouse several years ago, Bird said. That didn’t work very well, and a new, improved, attempt is being made with this latest restoration, he said. The department has also worked to clear the trees and brush away from structure, making it far more visible to passers-by on Keane Lane. A park picnic table stands near the lighthouse also.
Decades ago, the lighthouse was visible from other parts of the park. A historic postcard featuring the Izaak Walton Rearing Ponds at Deming Park includes a distant view of the structure in the background. The area that once contained those ponds is now grown up with trees, bushes and has a small creek running through it. However, the lighthouse is accessible from the interior of the park via trails running through those woods. A small bridge crosses a creek along the way to the lighthouse’s area of the park.
“It’s just something that we’ve grown up seeing over the years,” Anderson said, explaining why he and his cousin, Steve Garritson, have been leading the charge to restore the lighthouse. Anderson said it was commonly known in his family that their ancestor, “Fish” Reynolds, had donated the structure.
Charles “Fish” Reynolds passed away about 40 years ago, Anderson said. He really only remembers visiting his great-great grandfather as a child in the hospital near the end of the man’s life, he said.
Anderson said his family wants absolutely no publicity for helping repair the lighthouse, but they are very interested in preserving this part of their history and an interesting landmark for the city of Terre Haute.
There is little doubt most people know next-to-nothing about the structure. A 2005 Tribune-Star article referred to the lighthouse as an “oddity” about 200 yards north of Poplar Street on Keane Lane made of rock and mortar. “Unmarked, it has no documented history,” the article stated.
The recent repairs have erased the neglect of many decades. Anderson said he and his family hope to make further improvements, including work on a deteriorated stone wall near the structure, with the parks department’s approval.
“It was about to fall down,” Anderson said of the landmark. “I think we caught it just in time.”
___
Information from: Tribune-Star, https://www.tribstar.com
Please read our comment policy before commenting.