Originally published in The Vidette-Messenger of Porter County on November 28, 1975.
Bailly Home Pact Awarded
Contract for more than $162,000 was awarded today to an Indiana firm for the restoration of the historic Bailly Homestead on Howe Road in the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.
Rainbow Construction Co., Inc., Geneva was successful bidder on the project with a proposal of $162,217, according to a spokesman for Indiana Sen. Vance Hartke, who was notified on the decision of the National Park Service.
A pre-construction meeting with Lakeshore personnel, park service representatives and the construction firm will be held Dec. 16 at the national park near Chesterton to finalize plans for the renovation.
Included in the contract will be restoration to various historical stages of the Bailly residence and four other buildings on the homestead property along the Little Calumet River between U.S. 20 and U.S. 12.
Lakeshore Supt. J.R. Whitehouse said today the project also will include provisions for a trail of wood chips connecting the historical structures and several information exhibits concerning the area. The restoration will show the evolution of the site where the first white settlers of northern Indiana made their home.
At least one of the buildings will be restored to near its appearance in 1822. Others will be restored to appear as they would at various intervals to 1917 when the last of the Baillys, Frances Howe, sold the property.
The construction project will involve detailed work under the supervision of a historical engineer from the National Park Service, Whitehouse said. Foundations will be strengthened and bricks and logs will be replaced.
Work is expected to continue into next August. The site includes the family residence, built in about 1833 around the walls of a log house that was built there first.
Other structures include a brick house built around the turn of the century to accommodate a visiting bishop, a small log cabin used as a chapel, servants’ quarters and a storehouse on the west side of the road.
The area was first settled by Joseph Bailly, who set up a trading post. Before his death, in 1835, Bailly had acquired about 2,200 acres of land in Lake and Porter counties. He once mapped out streets and lots on nearby tract in an unsuccessful bid to develop a town that was to have been called Bailly.
