Saving Historic Orange County-SHOC

05/29/2026

May is National Historic Preservation Month, a time to celebrate structures, sites and culture from our past. In Orange County, one of the eight most outstanding structures in Paoli, The Mineral Springs, is beginning to start a new life.
Springs Of Hope In Paoli, a group seeking non profit status which purchased the structure, will offer the public a hands-on opportunity to assist in saving the building June 6 from 9 to 12 when volunteers will begin cleaning up around the exterior and are accepting donations toward the multi-million dollar project through their page.
Until Springs Of Hope In Paoli attains non profit status, Saving Historic Orange County, a 20-year-old local non profit preservation group is serving as the fiscal sponsor for grant funding. Two grants have been awarded and checks were presented by SHOC officers this week. An Efroymson Family Fund grant of $3000 will assist in drying up moisture and removing wet debris created after a tornado lifted the roof away. A second grant of $4000, awarded by Indiana Landmarks, is allowing the group to contract an architectural firm to design a new roof.
Saving Historic Orange County, whose first public meeting was in the dining room at The Mineral Springs 20 years ago, has provided a donation to assist with restoration work, too.
For years, the deteriorating condition of the structure has remained on the radar for both SHOC and Indiana Landmarks. The Mineral Springs has twice been on Indiana Landmarks 10 Most Endangered List.
Built in 1895 by a local group of investors, The Mineral Springs Hotel, in the Paoli National Register Historic District, is considered Outstanding, the top National Register rating for historic properties.
Photographed below are Dr. Sean Sales, center, president of the board of Springs Of Hope In Paoli, who accepted grant funds and a donation from SHOC. Making the presentation are two SHOC officers, Karen Padgett, left and Terry Cornwell, right.
(Photo by Brenda Cornwell)

05/05/2026

Karen Padgett
Locals, we will be doing a 'Magical History Tour' May 9th at noon on the square. Meet in front of the museum in the Northwest corner. We will just be going around the square learning about the history of the buildings. If you want to take a little stroll around Newberry Cemetery and the woodland garden there, either before or after, you are welcome to do that too.

05/03/2026

Springs of Hope in Paoli wants to publicly recognize and thank Historic Orange County (SHOC) for agreeing to serve as our fiscal sponsor until we can attain our own 501c3 designation!
They have been instrumental in enabling our application for both the READI 2.0 grant (a couple weeks ago) as well as the Indiana Landmarks Endangered Places grant (today)!
If awarded, the latter will enable us to hire an architectural firm to help us design the restoration of the Mineral Springs Hotel!

04/02/2026

TWO ORANGE COUNTY PROPERTIES
ADDED TO NATIONAL REGISTER

An effort to recognize the importance of two of Orange County’s historical sites has come to fruition with The Maples Farm and former French Lick Methodist Church listing on the National Register of Historic Places.

Work began in 2025 when Saving Historic Orange County, SHOC, contracted Kurt Garner of K. W. Garner Consulting to research and submit a nomination for The Maples to be listed on the National Register. The process begins on the state level and takes about 18 months. On January 14 the state Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology Board recommendation the listing to the National Park Service, keeper of the National Register. Garner was joined by Terry and Brenda Cornwell of SHOC to attend the board session.

The French Lick Methodist Church nomination, also completed by Garner, followed a similar timeline. Garner was employed by former building owner, Sarah Stivers. It too, advanced in the DHPA Board’s January session and was listed on the National Register same date as The Maples.

The Maples Farm has the honor of being the first agriculture listing in Orange County. The farm includes a circa 1841 Federal style house and farm buildings that give it significance under agriculture and architecture. The house also functioned as a stagecoach inn operated by James P. Campbell during the middle part of the 19th century. The inn was located on one of Indiana’s earliest routes between Vincennes and New Albany, referred to as the Buffalo Trace or Vincennes-New Albany Road. That fact provided transportation significance to the farm. Owner of The Maples, Kelly Cuff, is a past recipient of SHOC’s annual preservation award.

The French Lick Methodist Episcopal Church, built in 1914, was designed by the Evansville architectural firm of Clifford Shopbell & Company. The building, late Gothic Revival style, was constructed of salt-glazed brick and features an interior dome. It was financed by one of the congregation's wealthy members known locally as "Banker Bill Cave.” He decided the congregation needed a more appropriate building with stained glass windows, pipe organ, and dome to match that of West Baden Springs Hotel. He financed the building, along with other congregants, to be constructed on "Millionaire's Row" where impressive homes of the community's merchants were located. The building was listed for its architectural significance.

The National Register is a function of the National Historic Preservation Act, established in 1966 to recognize sites and structures important to our heritage. The program provides rehabilitation tax credits and grants for qualifying work to homeowners, for-profit and non-profit entities, including churches and municipalities. Orange County has over 260 sites or structures listed. SHOC has funded the nomination of the Orleans Historic District, Jenkins Brothers homes, Schindler-Stetson House and The Maples Farm.

02/20/2026

Members of Saving Historic Orange County are saddened by the passing of Carolyn Kerby Jones. She was a Life Time member of SHOC and a fervent supporter of historic preservation. Carolyn seldom missed a SHOC meeting and we will miss her presence.

01/22/2026

The Maples nomination to the National Register went before the DHPA board of review last week. The vote to forward it to the National Park Service in Washington, D.C. was unanimous. Typically, when a nomination is approved by the state board of review, it is automatically approved for listing in D.C. SHOC’s consultant, Kurt Garner, realized the historic importance of the farm buildings at the inn and included them, submitting the application as The Maples Farm. If listed it will be the first farmstead in the county to be so honored.

01/22/2026

Another historic structure in Orange County passing the Division of Historic Preservation and Archeology review board for the National Register and forwarded to Washington, D. C. was the nomination of the Springs Valley United Methodist Church. Built in 1914 as the French Lick Methodist Episcopal Church, the structure was designed in early 20th century Gothic Revival style using glazed brick. It has an impressive collection of stained art glass windows. Now privately owned, the structure is located downtown French Lick. In the county’s Historic Sites and Structures Inventory, the building was rated outstanding, the highest level.
Should both The Maples Farm and Springs Valley Methodist Church be listed, Orange County will have 16 single historic structures and over 275 structures contained within the Orleans, Paoli, French Lick Springs Hotel and West Baden Springs Hotel historic districts. That’s quite an impressive number of historic homes and buildings, plus structures, such as the Gospel Street Iron Bridge in Paoli.

12/31/2025

Before 2025 slips away, Saving Historic Orange County must applauded the work done this year restoring the 1893 Thomas and Adeline Braxtan home. Owners Cheryl and Scott Eiklor have protected the historic home for another 130 years and earned the SHOC 2025 Historic Preservation Award. Braxtan House was the third structure in Orange County to be listed on listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Orange County Courthouse was listed in 1974, followed by Lindley House in 1985 and the Braxtan, 1989.

10/25/2025

Saving Historic Orange County (SHOC) has donated $1000 to kick-start this effort by the Historical Society to locate and place an historic barn at Lindley House, the historical society’s museum home. Lindley House was part of a working farm for the Thomas Elwood Lindley family, beginning in the Civil War era. Your contribution will allow the Historical Society to recreate the farm setting, move the Society”’s tool collection to the barn freeing up space in the downtown museum building and better provide an educational experience for visitors representative of Orange County early beginnings as an agriculture settlement.
————————————-

Orange County Historical Society Launches Barn Raising Campaign to Rebuild 1850s Farm Life at Lindley House

Paoli, IN — The Orange County Historical Society has recently launched a Barn Raising Campaign to reconstruct a one-story, 1850s-style historic barn at the historic Lindley House in Paoli. The project originally announced as part of the Society’s 50th Anniversary celebration of the creation of the Lindley Home Museum is designed to deepen the interpretation of the Lindley House as a working farm home from the mid-19th century.

The Society is currently searching for a suitable historic barn that can be dismantled and moved to the museum grounds or, alternatively, built to reflect the period using traditional methods and materials. The goal is to bring farm life from the 1850s and 1860s to life for visitors of all ages.

“We’re looking for a modest, authentic barn with character and history,” said Robert Henderson, President of the Historical Society. “This structure will help tell the story of early farm families in Orange County and give us a space for hands-on education.”

Once complete, the barn will feature museum exhibits, historic tools, and demonstrations of 19th-century farming techniques, as well as information on the crops and animals common to the time.

The space will be used for tours, school field trips, and seasonal programs.

To support the project, the Society has launched an Adopt-a-Beam Campaign. For $100, donors can symbolically adopt a beam and contribute directly to the reconstruction effort. All donors will receive a certificate and be recognized on-site. Local farms and agricultural businesses are also being invited to support the campaign through sponsorships.

The Society is spreading the word through local newspapers, radio ads, and social media, using the tagline: “Help Raise the Barn: One Beam at a Time.”

The Lindley House, listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1985, is open for guided tours by appointment and reflects the life and times of the 1850s to 1860s. The barn project will add an exciting new chapter to its educational mission.

To report a possible barn, adopt a beam, or get involved, contact the Orange County Historical Society at (812) 653-1212 or visit

Preserving Historical Materials & Traditions from Orange County Indiana