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HISTORIC MADISON, INC.
500 West Street Madison, Indiana 47250
A National Historic Landmark District
“Enriching our community’s future by valuing its past”
April 1, 2015
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
John Staicer, President & Executive Director, Historic Madison, Inc.
(812) 265-2967
RARE HISTORIC PROPERTY FOR SALE
Historic Madison, Inc. today announced the sale of one of its historic properties – the
Tobacco Prizing House at 106 Elm Street in the Madison, Indiana National Historic
Landmark District.
The Tobacco Prizing House will be sold at a sealed bid auction on May 8, 2015 at 2 pm
in the law office of Merritt K. Alcorn at One W. Sixth Street, Madison, Indiana 47250.
To attend the private auction, please submit a sealed offer to Mr. Alcorn at his office by
May 8 at 2:00 p.m. The property contains approximately 0.12 acres (more or less) and
will be sold “as is”. The minimum bid is $95,000. The complete list of bid rules are
available at: www.historicmadisoninc.com. The building is available for viewing
through: Coldwell Banker Harrell & Associates, Inc. Call or email Kevin Harrell at
(812) 701-7774, or kevin.harrell@coldwellbanker.com.
The sale is part of the Historic Madison, Inc. (HMI) strategic plan to reduce its property
portfolio and invest in its core museum properties. Proceeds from the sale of the
building will support the restoration of the Shrewsbury-Windle House National Historic
Landmark, at 301 West First Street, one of America’s premiere historic homes.
Due to its historical significance the Tobacco Prizing House has been documented by
the Historic American Building Survey/Historic American Engineering Record, a unit
of the National Park Service. Large scale architectural measured drawings show many
of the details of the building, including much of its machinery. This information is in
the permanent collection of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. and is
available to view online at: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/in0345/
MORE
PHONE: (812) 265-2967 FAX (812) 273-3941
E-MAIL: hmi@historicmadisoninc.com WEBSITE: www.HistoricMadisonInc.com
RARE HISTORIC PROPERTY FOR SALE, page 2
CONTACT:
John Staicer, President & Executive Director, Historic Madison, Inc.
(812) 265-2967
The Tobacco Prizing House gets its name from many years of use by the American Tobacco Company.
From 1922 to 1970, local farmers brought their tobacco leaf to the building adjacent to the Crystal Beach
Pool where it was graded, sorted, compressed into round bales, and shipped for further processing.
Rare tobacco prizing equipment is still in place in the building. There are two sets of floor scales, one for
weighing leaf on the way in, and one on the way out. One of the scales is very ornately designed with
Greek style classical columns. Even more curious is the unique hydraulic compressing equipment used to
squeeze the tobacco into heavy round bales. It may be the only example of its kind in the US.
The western two-story portion of this brick building was built as a carriage house and stable between
1887 and 1892 by either A.C. Lanier or Milton Stapp. It features a heavy timber truss system which
supports the roof and provides a clear span on first floor.
In 1904, the W. Trow & Co. flour mill bought the property and added a 109 foot long, one story addition
on the east end and converted it into a barrel making factory or cooperage.
Julius Scheyer bought the building in 1919 for use as the Major Apron Factory. The words “MAJOR
__RON CO.” are still visible in a painted sign on the west side of the building. This short lived operation
ceased in 1922 when the American Tobacco Company began operations.
Since 1970, Historic Madison, Inc. has used the building for storage of furnishings and for its large
collection of architectural salvage. HMI sells historic bricks, slate shingles, windows, shutters, doors and
much more to local property owners and contractors for authentic restoration work. Countless buildings
in Madison have been repaired with salvaged materials from HMI. Funds from the sale of architectural
salvage support the organization’s operations.
Historic Madison, Inc. is an award-winning, member-supported, not-for-profit historic preservation
organization founded in 1960. The organization owns, operates and maintains sixteen significant
properties in Madison’s National Historic Landmark district, including four house museums, the
Shrewsbury-Windle House, the Schroeder Saddletree Factory Museum, St. Michael the Archangel, a
pioneer garden and much more. Visit www.historicmadisoninc.com for more information.
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