Castle Cottage - Historic Architecture - Lafayette, Indiana
Fisher Funeral Chapel & Cremation Services
914 Columbia St.
Lafayette IN 47901
Sean Lutes - Preserve Historic Lafayette
March 26, 2022
The Castle Cottage of Helen Gougar ⚜️⚜️⚜️
One of the Old City's few Romanesque Revival structures is also one of its most historically significant. March is Women's History Month, and what better way to celebrate it than a story of the Old City's very own suffragist and shaker mover Helen Gougar and her grand "Castle Cottage"?
Helen Gougar was born in a village in Michigan in 1843, and in 1860 she moved to Lafayette with her brothers and uncles. Lafayette in 1860 was a rapidly growing city, with layers of success built upon the river ports, canals, and now railroads, causing the Old City's population to swell from 6,000 in 1850 to nearly 10,000 by the time Helen arrived.
Helen took up work as a teacher and quickly found success, becoming a local principal in 1863, only 3 years after arriving in the city. But this was not enough for the hungry mind of Helen, and after her marriage in 1863 to John Gougar, a successful local attorney, Helen took up the task of being his legal apprentice. She took this pursuit of knowledge so seriously that she left her position as a principal to focus entirely on this effort.
Soon she was writing columns in the Lafayette Courier, and even started her own Lafayette paper, the "Our Herald" by the 1880's. By the 1870's she took on the matter of Suffrage, extending the vote to Women. Gougar was converted to the cause of women’s suffrage upon learning about the death of a mother of four in 1878 from domestic violence. Though Gougar had been “praying away the evil,” incidents like that convinced her that it would be more effective to “vote it away." Gougar did not shy away from the injustice nor fell to the weight of discouragement such circumstances must have presented, but rather pushed forward.
She became a national figure for suffragists, and in the 1890's sued the county for her right to vote in the 1894 election, the case ultimately leading to the Indiana State Supreme Court. Though she did not win her case, she paved the way for those after her, even being admitted to the Tippecanoe Bar in 1895.
By the 1890's, Helen Gougar and her husband, John, had accumulated enough wealth to construct a new grand home in the heart of the Old City at 10th and Columbia. An old canal era wood frame house was pulled down to make way for the Romanesque Revival (a style inspired by the early Medieval architecture of Europe) edifice in 1896. The red brick and stone structure was deemed one of the finest homes in the city, and earned the nickname "Castle Cottage." The home was noted not only for its architecture, but the handsome parlor for maids and servants constructed in the rear of the home, a sign of a truly "progressive" family to treat the maids to such a dignified space.
In 1907 Helen Gougar died. Her husband John would pass many years later in 1925. Though Helen did not live to see the 19th Amendment (which gives women the right to vote) ratified, John did and could see the ultimate fruits of the labor of suffragists like Helen.
The Old City has always been a welcome home for the thinker, the philosopher, the artist, the shaker and mover. Here cognitive dissonance finds no home where the city's ancestors found solace from their relentless Muses either through the bottom of a bottle or fierce community effort, or, in many cases, both.
Shortly after the death of John, the house was sold to undertakers who converted the home into a funeral parlor. It remains a funeral parlor to this day. In recent years the owners at Fisher Funeral Home had Castle Cottage made a protected structure, and have worked diligently to maintain, restore, and care for the important landmark in our Old City so that it can continue to inspire for generations to come.
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Contributing Property - St. Mary Historic District - NRHP - 01000622
Castle Cottage - Historic Architecture - Lafayette, Indiana
Fisher Funeral Chapel & Cremation Services
914 Columbia St.
Lafayette IN 47901
Sean Lutes - Preserve Historic Lafayette
March 26, 2022
The Castle Cottage of Helen Gougar ⚜️⚜️⚜️
One of the Old City's few Romanesque Revival structures is also one of its most historically significant. March is Women's History Month, and what better way to celebrate it than a story of the Old City's very own suffragist and shaker mover Helen Gougar and her grand "Castle Cottage"?
Helen Gougar was born in a village in Michigan in 1843, and in 1860 she moved to Lafayette with her brothers and uncles. Lafayette in 1860 was a rapidly growing city, with layers of success built upon the river ports, canals, and now railroads, causing the Old City's population to swell from 6,000 in 1850 to nearly 10,000 by the time Helen arrived.
Helen took up work as a teacher and quickly found success, becoming a local principal in 1863, only 3 years after arriving in the city. But this was not enough for the hungry mind of Helen, and after her marriage in 1863 to John Gougar, a successful local attorney, Helen took up the task of being his legal apprentice. She took this pursuit of knowledge so seriously that she left her position as a principal to focus entirely on this effort.
Soon she was writing columns in the Lafayette Courier, and even started her own Lafayette paper, the "Our Herald" by the 1880's. By the 1870's she took on the matter of Suffrage, extending the vote to Women. Gougar was converted to the cause of women’s suffrage upon learning about the death of a mother of four in 1878 from domestic violence. Though Gougar had been “praying away the evil,” incidents like that convinced her that it would be more effective to “vote it away." Gougar did not shy away from the injustice nor fell to the weight of discouragement such circumstances must have presented, but rather pushed forward.
She became a national figure for suffragists, and in the 1890's sued the county for her right to vote in the 1894 election, the case ultimately leading to the Indiana State Supreme Court. Though she did not win her case, she paved the way for those after her, even being admitted to the Tippecanoe Bar in 1895.
By the 1890's, Helen Gougar and her husband, John, had accumulated enough wealth to construct a new grand home in the heart of the Old City at 10th and Columbia. An old canal era wood frame house was pulled down to make way for the Romanesque Revival (a style inspired by the early Medieval architecture of Europe) edifice in 1896. The red brick and stone structure was deemed one of the finest homes in the city, and earned the nickname "Castle Cottage." The home was noted not only for its architecture, but the handsome parlor for maids and servants constructed in the rear of the home, a sign of a truly "progressive" family to treat the maids to such a dignified space.
In 1907 Helen Gougar died. Her husband John would pass many years later in 1925. Though Helen did not live to see the 19th Amendment (which gives women the right to vote) ratified, John did and could see the ultimate fruits of the labor of suffragists like Helen.
The Old City has always been a welcome home for the thinker, the philosopher, the artist, the shaker and mover. Here cognitive dissonance finds no home where the city's ancestors found solace from their relentless Muses either through the bottom of a bottle or fierce community effort, or, in many cases, both.
Shortly after the death of John, the house was sold to undertakers who converted the home into a funeral parlor. It remains a funeral parlor to this day. In recent years the owners at Fisher Funeral Home had Castle Cottage made a protected structure, and have worked diligently to maintain, restore, and care for the important landmark in our Old City so that it can continue to inspire for generations to come.
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Contributing Property - St. Mary Historic District - NRHP - 01000622