Osborne Home - 955 North Campbell Avenue

Year Built: 1908

Architecture Style: Arts and Crafts

Key Features:

• River Rock Siding and Chimney
• Grouped Windows
• Wrap Porch

Benjamin Osborne was a farmer who built this house as his dream house when he was 60 years old. He culled nearby Pleasant Run stream for boulders and positioned the home amidst beech, oak, maple, elm, poplar, and red bud trees. They called the house Beechwood.

The Osbornes predated the founding of Irvington and must have watched in amazement as the community began to grow ever closer to their farm. After the completion of Pleasant Run Parkway in 1911, developers began to approach the Osbornes, who in turn sold off parcels of their property as the land around them was developed. The Osborne home was not razed, but was instead placed in an oval plot of land. Builders constructed tasteful Tudor Revival and craftsman bungalows around the Osborne home.

Mr. Brown, the developer, placed several restrictions upon the development. All homes had to cost at least $1800 or more and were required to be set back at least forty feet. He decreed that no duplexes, businesses, or apartments could be built within the new subdivision. He also forbade African-Americans from purchasing lots. It was the 1920s and Indiana was under the grip of the Ku Klux Klan, which we’ll talk more about later during the tour. The nearby Emerson Heights neighborhood had a similar discrimination clause.