Stepping into the Seiberling Mansion, you have to stop and gaze – not just at the deep crimson walls, arched woodwork and the stunning Victorian staircase, but how life was like 126 years ago.
The mansion was built in 1890 for Ohio industrialist Monroe Seiberling and his family. They came to the area after the discovery of natural gas. Seiberling started the Kokomo Strawboard company and then expanded his business quickly throughout the state.
His mansion is a mixture of Neo-Jacobean and Romanesque Revival styles. Interior woodwork is made of native trees with ornate design and adorns the ceiling and trim work. The mansion includes eight rooms on the first floor, seven on the second and a grand ballroom on the third floor.
Howard County Historical Society Director Dave Broman says the building is more than a work of art, it represents the mark of economic change.
"In a sense, it's symbolic of what the community is now and the kind of industrialization that came in with the gas boom and made Kokomo the community it is," Broman says.
The house was originally heated and illuminated by natural gas.
The mansion eventually became home to Indiana University at Kokomo for twenty years before it was taken over and restored by the Howard County Historical Society.
Since then, Kokomo native and Mayor Greg Goodnight says the mansion is a centerpiece of community pride.
"At one point I lived about six houses down when my kids were very young so they would play in the yard there a little bit," Goodnight says. "If you look at the size of the mansion and all the details of the mansion, they always liked playing around it, climbing up the stairs, sitting on the porch."
But after some patches, the original slate roof can no longer be fixed. Water leaks are damaging some of the rooms.
I can't think of a better way for our tax dollars to be spent, preserving what makes us unique and something that will tell our story to future generations.
So Broman and other leaders started a community campaign, talking to donors, sending out grant applications and solidifying support from the county to raise $1 million needed to replace the roof.
"It's reminding people of our history. I can't think of a better way for our tax dollars to be spent, preserving what makes us unique and something that will tell our story to future generations so, I would defend that to the end," Goodnight says.
The "Save Our Seiberling: The Next Hundred Years" campaign kicked off last week. Broman says the Community Foundation of Howard County announced a $50,000 matching grant to get the campaign going.
"By understanding how we got to how we are today, we can I think anyway, believe that we can deal better with our lives today and the decisions we have to make about the future," Broman says.
The goal is to wrap up the fundraising campaign by the end of the year. Construction could begin in early 2017.
