The Brick and the Bridge--Part 2 the Brick

Next to the bridge, the most photographed structure in Huffman Mill has to be "The Brick" as we refer to the Huffman brick home.  The earliest "image" I have of The Brick is from the "Historical Atlas of Spencer Co., Ind. 1879".  While one can question the accuracy of the engraving, the general architecture of the house is certainly the same as it stands today, and the relative positions of the house, bridge, and mill are correct.

The earliest actual photograph I can find is shown below.  This was originally from my grandmother (Anna Huffman) and given to Helen (Huffman) Butler's girls.

The next photograph was probably taken in the 1930's, before the fire that nearly destroyed everything.

In 1937 the house was nearly destroyed by fire, with only a few of the brick walls remaining.  Several photographs exist that were probably taken just before the fire and the aftermath of the inferno.  The next two photos are from the O.V.Brown collection in the Spencer County Library and show how one can use photos for a bit of "detective" work. 

The photo on the left shows Riley Huffman (holding wooden box) with my father (Millard W. Huffman), his brother .  Note that the columns on the second floor of the house are turned wood, the same as the columns on the house shown above.  The surveying instruments that Millard and Riley are holding were severely damaged in the house fire.  My father was able to retrieve them from the ashes and when I became interested in maps and surveying as a youth he gave them to me.  The instruments belonged to Daniel R. McKim who will be the subject of a later chapter.  Another indication of the relative times the photographs were taken comes from the small evergreen shrub just to the left of the front door of the house above.  The shrub, grown larger, is seen in the same position in photos after the fire (see below, with Lorene (Patmore) Huffman, Millard's wife) standing in the ruins..

Another indication that the photo shown earlier is pre-fire is the wooden porch under the summer kitchen entrance (to the left in the photo below).  Note that it is identical to that prior to the fire.

There are hundreds of photos of the house taken in the years after it was rebuilt.  The one below is one I took in about 1965.  Notice that the columns on the second floor are square!