Historical Significance:
The Colonel Isaac C. Elston House, built between 1880 and 1882, is significant for its historic association with a family prominent in the development of Crawfordsville. The house is architecturally significant as a superb example of the eastern stick style, and for the excellence of its craftsmanship, detailing, and high degree of integrity.
Col. Elston's father, Major Isaac C. Elston, was an early pioneer in Crawfordsville, establishing a store and erecting a log cabin there in 1823. He was also instrumental in founding Michigan City, and helped with the development of Lafayette, Indiana. In 1850 he became president of the Crawfordsville and Wabash Railroad. Largely due to his efforts, the line was completed to Lafayette in 1852, and merged with the New Albany and Salem line. This railroad insured Crawfordsville's economic future. In 1853 Major Elston and his son-in-law, future U.S. Senator Henry S. Lane, established the first bank in Crawfordsville.
The Major's son, Col. Elston, was born in 1836, and was educated at Wabash College and the University of Michigan, then served during the Civil War under Col. Lew Wallace. He established the First National Bank of Memphis, Tennessee, in 1864, and a brokerage business in Cincinnati in 1866. He returned to Crawfordsville when his father died in 1867, and assumed control of the Elston and Company banking firm. In 1905 the bank became the Elston National Bank, which was later under the direction of his son, Isaac C. Elston, III. This bank has now been absorbed by first National City Bank which then became PNC Bank.
This house was constructed circa 1882 in Elston Grove, a large wooded grove south of the elder Elston's brick federal style house. This grove was also built upon by the Elston daughters, Joanna (married to Henry S. Lane) and Susan (married to Lew Wallace). The Lane Place was listed in the National Register in 1981. The Wallace home no longer stands, but Lew Wallace's nearby study is a National Historic Landmark, where it is said he wrote most of Ben Hur.
The house has been owned by the Elston Memorial Foundation since 1923, when ownership was transferred directly from the family. Many of the original furnishings are still in the house, and no major changes have been made. The house exhibits the outstanding characteristics of the stick style, including the projecting gable; vertical, horizontal and diagonal boards applied over the horizontal siding; and oversized brackets. It is one of the most outstanding examples in the state, particularly notable because of its unchanged condition.
