Friday, July 12, 2019

F. W. Wakefield Mansion

Vintage postcard
It’s a real shame that the former F. W. Wakefield residence and Inland Seas Maritime Museum has to be torn down.

(Click here for a well-written Morning Journal article by Jordan Joy about the demolition decision, and here for another excellent article by Joy about F. W. Wakefield himself.)

Here’s another vintage postcard, courtesy of the Morning Journal.

And here’s a newer one.

The home has been used as a museum since 1953.

From the front page of the Vermilion News, August 6, 1953 
But I’ve come to accept that when a city is determined to tear down a historic landmark, the decision-makers are going to make the strongest possible argument and there’s not much the average person can do – except go take a picture of it.

Along those lines, here are a few views of the doomed mansion from the July 4th weekend.