1496 N. Salisbury St, West Lafayette
phone: 765-607-1207 | email: droddel@wlaf.lib.in.us
The Caretaker’s Cottage is closed for the Winter season. We look forward to your visit in the Spring.
Now accepting private tours by reservation.
Preserving Community History
For over a century, the Caretaker’s Cottage has watched West Lafayette grow into a busy, hi-tech town. Originally fronted by a wrought-iron fence set with matching stone pillars, the cemetery on Salisbury Street is a familiar landmark to many in the community. The cottage, built alongside in 1903 to house Grand View’s grounds laborer, is a window to the community’s past. Constructed of Bedford limestone and with unique terracotta roof tiles, the original design with the iconic double porches included no more than a 1-2 rooms and a root cellar. Generations of caretakers watched the nearby farms and barns come down one after another when West Lafayette began to rapidly develop after World War II. Where once there had been traction cars barreling along interurban tracks through nearby ravines, by the later twentieth century Grand View Cemetery was surrounded mostly by suburban families and by Happy Hollow Park.
Grand View Cemetery changed ownership a few times over the years. Few records exist to tell us who exactly lived in the Cottage over the years before it was eventually placed on the Wabash Valley Trust for Historic Preservation’s Endangered List in 2017. The cemetery’s owner at that time was interested in selling the cottage, and the West Lafayette Redevelopment Commission purchased the plot in April of that same year.
A local group called CHiPS (Community Historic Project Support) raised donations and support in the community, and worked with the Redevelopment Commission to plan renovation for the Cottage. West Lafayette Public Library’s Local History and Archive Collections began to collaborate to develop the newly-renovated space into a local history center, and work was finished on this project in December of 2023.
The structure had been well-worn from decades of use, and the floor had completely collapsed in some places. The root cellar was filled-in, and the inside was redone with ash interiors and inset windows. With the renovation project complete at the Caretaker’s Cottage, West Lafayette Public Library will open a seasonal exhibition and community history space.
Sharing Local History with the Community
West Lafayette Public Library will be working with community partners to develop exhibits and displays that highlight local history topics. The Cottage will be open seasonally from March to November, with a new rotation of exhibitions planned every year. Our helpful docents will be there to offer the community the opportunity to learn more about important community history subjects.
Current Exhibits
The Caretaker’s Tank Scrap View
From the mid 1890s until 1913, a brutal student past-time called the Tank Scraps took place right next to the Caretaker’s Cottage. The scraps were unarmed fights between the freshmen and sophomore Purdue classes to determine whose ‘numerals’ (the year a class would graduate from Purdue) would be painted on top of the water tower that sits next to the Cottage, which was built in 1896-87.
The Cottage Renovation Story
This area will be focused on telling the story of Grand View Cottage from start to finish, beginning with the construction of the building at the turn of the century up to the recent acquisition and renovation by the West Lafayette Redevelopment Commission in 2017. The Cottage story is a story that stands alongside the development of our community from a small town to the larger urban environment. The level of community support from various partners helped to make this cottage dream a reality.
Race and Housing in West Lafayette
Part of a years-long endeavor by Racial Reconciliation of Greater Lafayette, this exhibition is being developed along with a class at the John Martinson Honors College at Purdue University under Dr. Nathan Swanson. The center of the project highlights the historic use in West Lafayette property deed language of racial covenants that segregated local housing.
Red Devils: A Century of Football
This display features pieces from various collections at WLPL’s archive collections, wherein patrons can learn more about the history of football at West Lafayette High School. The exhibit highlights some famous athletes that went pro as well as examining the legacy of school spirit.
Winged Seeds Take Root: Frank Lloyd Wright in West Lafayette
This exhibit features the history of Frank Lloyd Wright’s SAMARA House in West Lafayette. Wright’s usonian vision is fully-realized at SAMARA, supreme elegance shares a direct connection to the outdoors; where color, line, and depth come together to make beautiful art. This was created in partnership with Indiana Landmarks and the John E. Christian Family Memorial Trust.
Upcoming Exhibits
African American Servicemen of Tippecanoe County
Coming in Fall of 2025, we will install an exhibit featuring African American veterans from the world wars who were from Tippecanoe County. Featuring profiles and photos, this exhibit’s placement in the second half of the year is both to take advantage of Memorial Day and Veterans Day in marketing the display. We will obtain some great war-era artifacts from our partner TCHA to add some physicality to the information presented in this exhibit.
Exploring Black Spaces in West Lafayette
Coming in Spring of 2025, we will install an exhibit on the North wall that explores the history of African American institutions, organizations, and spaces in West Lafayette. Centering on the Black Cultural Center at Purdue University, the exhibit will offer insights into how the Center’s creation played a crucial role in carving out a space for Black identity at Purdue as well as in West Lafayette.
Mr. Howenstein’s Opus: Creating West Side’s Song
Coming in Fall of 2025, we will install an exhibit using the Marshall Howenstein collection at the Library to tell the story of Howenstein’s time as music director of WLHS where he famously wrote the music for the school’s fight song, Scarlet and Grey.
West Lafayette Sultans of Swing
Coming in Spring of 2025, we will install a curated collection of sports memorabilia items from the Orlando Itin Local Sports History Collection at WLPL. This large collection features items and information about a number of players in various sports, and this exhibit will focus on baseball players from West Side and Harrison who eventually played in the major leagues.
Past Exhibits
An Interpretive History of West Lafayette
The largest exhibition coming into Grand View Cottage this year, this will be a truly traditional exhibit designed for history lovers and curious community members alike. Sourced mainly from the Archive Collections at West Lafayette Public Library, and with assistance from our friend at Tippecanoe County Historical Association, we hope to share a historic journey through the history of our riverside community’s past from the beginnings of trader settlement at Fort Ouiatenon to the modern, developed city that West Lafayette is today.
Chivalry in Shelbyville: Historical Thinking, 1898-2024
This exhibition is being developed by a class at the John Martinson Honors College at Purdue University under Dr. Kristina Bross. The focus is on Charles Major, a notable Hoosier author lost to the sands of time. He wrote When Knighthood Was in Flower over a century ago, and Dr. Bross’s class aims to explore that novel with the aim to release a new edition of it in the future.