A belated goodbye to A Costumiery.

In January of 2012, Dale Moss (then still writing for the C-J) wrote about the owners of A Costumiery, who were having a very hard time of it.

Trouble hard to mask for New Albany costume shop (paid archive only)

Jean Crook struggled for the best way to sum up her predicament.

"I'm stuck," she said softly, eyes downward. "I truly am."

Along with husband John, Crook operates A Costumiery in what was built long ago as a grocer's mansion on Spring Street in New Albany. There, the elderly couple lives, and there a business dies. Not one customer came calling during my recent visit. At least no bill collector did, either.

A Costumiery was always there, ever since we moved into the neighborhood, just a block down the street. I saw Dale's piece and got the chills, because wasn't this every independent small business owner's nightmare? The Crooks were well past retirement age. Their business was dead in the water. They could afford neither to carry on, nor to quit. The house was falling part before their eyes and ours, and they were still living in it ... stuck.

It was so very sad, and maybe that's why I filed it in the anxiety closet and forgot. Some demons are too close to home, both literally and figuratively.

I've walked past the old grocer's mansion several hundred times since then. Until last weekend, I didn't even know that John Crook died in March of 2013, or that Jean Crook was ill and had moved away to live with family. Late last week, a small "Yard Sale" sign was out in the yard, and we began seeing items big and small being carried out -- couches, gowns, U-Haul boxes. We stopped in on Saturday to see what was left, and there was a lot.

Someone asked what would happen to the rest of the business inventory and personal items once the yard sale concluded. "I suppose into the trash," came the answer. We ran into Dave Barksdale, and he observed that although the house (once emptied) needs love, the bones are good. The house itself probably has seen this process a few times; if walls could talk.

The former grocer's house and costumery is for sale; there's a phone number on the door. I took photos to remember A Costumiery as a business, and perhaps also for comparison's sake, some day, when it has been renovated and is being showcased during the annual Historic Home Tour.

Ninth Annual New Albany Historic Home Tour is Sunday, September 13.

The Robert Moses House is not on this year's tour.

David Barksdale had his table set up at the farmers market this morning, which means that once again the annual historic home tour draws near.

I reached for my wallet, then recalled being short of cash, and with tomatoes yet to buy. Then it occurred to both of us to look at the date: September 13, or as it is being pronounced at 1117 East Spring Street, "vacation."

Accordingly, I told Dave that I'd sell tickets to make up for our absence. If you buy home tour tickets from him, say "NA Confidential sent me." Here's the skinny, with more details to follow:

The Ninth Annual New Albany Historic Home Tour will be on Saturday, Sept. 13. Tickets, which go on sale in July, are $15 in advance for adults and $5 for children under 15 years old. For more information, email tickets@DevelopNA.org or call 812-941-0018.

Recap: New Albany Historic Home Tour 2013.

After the bedlam in Lanesville, we returned to New Albany around lunchtime on Saturday and strolled portions of the home tour. The view above shows wooden beams at the old Buchheit brewery building on 10th Street, which is being renovated as a dwelling.

Before Saturday, I'd never set foot in either the Town Hall Clock Church or the Scribner House. The latter prompted what I'll recall as the day's chief memory: The contrast between the south side of Main Street and the north.

I'll merely note that over the past few years, raising this topic of former windows, it seems that about the only issue that anyone in a position of authority in the city of New Albany actually agrees upon is the hopelessness of curing windowlessness. It's nothing against any building owner; we all have our particular issues, me included ... but really?

Is it really something that nothing can be done about?

Fore! It's New Albany Historic Homes Tour time again.

We're big fans of this, the seventh-annual home tour, and we hope to see one or more of the eight homes on the eighth day of the ninth month in the year 2012, but for the life of me, I simply can't unravel the numerical pun in the title: "Time Four A Tour." Can anyone help me? I just know it's something clever. Meanwhile, we're looking forward to Saturday.

TIME FOUR A TOUR: Historic New Albany homes and buildings to be on display next week, by Daniel Suddeath (News and Biblical Concordance)

... “We kept this to be our hidden surprise,” Epler said. “It’s just where everybody gathers.”

But next Saturday, Sept. 8, Epler and Milburn want to let everybody in on the secret gem that is the cabin room, as well as the other features of their house. It will be one of eight buildings featured on the seventh-annual New Albany Historic Homes Tour.

New Albany's annual Historic Home Tour once again a winner.

This quaint reminder (above) of pride gone by the wayside is at the Wells-Holmes House on East Elm, as renovated by Jeff Sumler.

Brandon Thompson explains the history of the Stanton R. Welch Building, which was built near the end of the Civil War.

Within the David Hedden House on Dewey Heights, a stone's throw from anti-preservationist Steve Price's Rentals-R-Us HQ, is this homage to a Bavarian "snug."

Bar none, our favorite house was Jim and Tabitha Sprigler's on 9th (Charles M. Zink House). Knowing what they've gone through, and the deft balance between old architectural features and more contemporary design themes, the effect is stunning. Congratulations to them!

Read more at the Tribune: Fifth annual Historic Home Tour draws crowds despite threat of rain; Tour guides describe renovations, uses for structures, by Leah Tate.

A wonderful day: Historic Home Tour and snacks afterward.

My wife Diana's friend, Amy, has been looking for a house to buy here in New Albany. She met us at the house this morning around 10:30 a.m., and we promptly embarked on the historic homes crawl. It was time well spent, although I'll leave the photos to someone more talented than me. Ted?

The three of us began by walking to the Farmers Market to register and receive our maps, then adjourned to the new apartments above Studio's.

The firehouse on State was to be saved until last, so we continued on foot: East on Main, north on 13th to the church, Cardinal Ritter house and Cedar Bough, then east again to complete a loop that included properties on Ekin, Elm and Spring.

The Sears Roebuck catalog house on Ekin opposite the national cemetery will be remembered as the find of the day. $4,398 in 1928, and quite well planned and executed. Amazing stuff, indeed.

We strolled back to the 1117 East Spring Street Neighborhood Association and took the car to the firehouse before ending at River City Winery to redeem the tasting tickets included in the tour programs and to relax with appetizers and wine.

It was our first chance to try the hummus, crabcakes and chees plate at RCW, and all were good. The crabcakes may well become a signature dish, as are Chef Josh's scallops at Bank Street Brewhouse, which were Friday night's dinner prior to the Carnegie Center fundraiser:

(Gotta give props to my man, too)

The Carnegie fundraiser seemed quite successful, and we had a great night at BSB. The atmosphere was laid back but festive on Bank Street last night.

The evidence is beginning to accumulate that a corner has been turned. The only point of dissonance I heard in the past 48 hours was a rumor that an unnamed councilperson would be seeking to overturn the riverfront development ordinance approved by the previous council -- the one that makes possible the three-way alcohol permits prefacing several downtown start-ups.

Why would anyone so much as contemplate killing the goose that continues laying golden bureaucratic permission slips? Is it because there might be too many bars downtown?

Or is it because there's too much progress downtown?

And: When is the last time progress was even an issue?

If the rumor is true, I hope it's Steve Price. Any further effort of his to squelch economic growth within his own council district should be sufficient for us to purchase a few garlic-encrusted coffin nails come 2011.

A morning with the Schwartzels, and a successful New Albany Historic Home Tour.

Your humble correspondent is not accustomed to being, well, humbled, but Saturday was a notable exception.

Promptly at 10:05 a.m., the first historic home tourists were queued outside on the front steps. They proved to be a baker’s dozen descendents of the Schwartzels, who bought the house in 1913 and lived in it until after World War II.

Among them was the youngest (and last surviving) Schwartzel daughter, now aged 77, who left the house at the age of 17 in 1947 and had not returned since. Spry and sharp, she led the clan and one very attentive homeowner room by room through the house, dispensing anecdotes and details about its original configuration, which has been much altered on the ground floor.

She showed us where her father hid the hootch during Prohibition, explained that the dormitory-scale floorplan of the house was a crucial factor in its purchase by a couple intending to have a large family (they had 9 children in all), and referred to the physical location as an "island" during the 1937 flood, with only one pathway above water level leading out of the neighborhood to a grocery store down the street.

If the walls could talk, it would indeed be wonderful, but living history is far better. If not for the home tour, would we have had the opportunity to hear the tales told on Saturday morning?

It’s unlikely.

Kudos to the tour organizers. It was an honor to meet the Schwartzel kin and the day’s many other visitors. The good feeling evidently was shared by others who, like us, opened their homes for the day, as in this account at Diggin’ in the Dirt: Life After the Historic Homes Tour.

Are we having fun yet?

Welcome to our second big day of "reorganization" in preparation for the New Albany Historic Home Tour next Saturday.

Hoosier style

I'd rather be in Philadelphia ... but seriously, at least matters will be simplified for the annual NA Confidential HH parade party on October 6. A hint: There'll be Progressive Pints at both.

Press release: Historic Home Tour Back for Second Year ... Organizers Expect 500 Visitors.

The New Albany Historic Home Tour, September 8, 2007, takes you behind the scenes as the doors of ten properties in the city’s four historic districts are opened to visitors. Discover the rich architectural heritage of New Albany as you explore private residences, gardens, and commercial buildings. On this tour, sponsored by Develop New Albany, you are invited inside for a glimpse of what it is like to live, work, and worship in these unique structures.

Floyd County Historian David Barksdale commented, “With the tour, we can involve the community first-hand in New Albany’s historic experience. The architectural diversity and walkable neighborhoods of our city are a well kept secret and we enjoy having the opportunity to show them off to the Metro area. An estimated 500 visitors will see New Albany from a different perspective as we open the doors to our past, present, and future.”

New Albany’s four historic districts contain over 800 buildings. A highlight of this year’s event is St. Mary of the Annunciation Catholic Church. An outstanding example of Romanesque Revival architecture, it was built in 1858 for the German Catholic community. Also on tour this year is the Reibel House, used as a hotel in the 1800s and the Zinsmeister house, a Second Empire gem, sometimes known locally as the Little Culbertson for its similarity to the Culbertson Mansion State Historic Site.

The tour starts at 10:00 a.m. at the New Albany Farmers Market at the corner of Bank and Market Streets where you will purchase tickets and pick up your tour booklet and driving map. You can set your own pace and visit the stops in any order you wish through the close of the tour at 5:00 p.m.

Ticket costs are $15 for an adult. Children under 15 are $5. Visit
www.newalbanypreservation.com for information about purchasing
advance tickets. Or purchase them at any one of the following New Albany locations: AAA Plumbing Doctor, 302B Market Street; Martha’s Attic, 222 Pearl Street; Treet’s Bakery & Café, 133 E Market; or Downtown Farmers Market, Bank and Market Streets, Saturdays starting August 4.

All proceeds fund historic preservation activities in New Albany.

Questions: HomeTourNA@msn.com