Christmas Candle-Light Tour of Historic Homes - People Engaged in ...

An active member of the First Christian Church, William A. Martin was a
renaissance man, if there ever was one. In his early years, he worked in the Davidson
& Davidson furniture store, and then went into the furniture business himself. He was
associated with the John Hilt Lake Ice Co. (serving as president, until shortly before his
death), the La Porte Gas & Electric Co. (also serving as president, for a time), and the La
Porte Investment Company. In 1884, he was elected County Treasurer, and served one
term. For years, he served on the board of the Ruth Sabin Home, and was president until
not long before his death. He served a 3 year term on the city school board, about 1908.
He was also involved in the real estate trade. William Martin died in 1927, at age 80.
Son T. Foster Martin, our 1528 Michigan resident, served as treasurer of the John
Hilt Lake Ice Co. for
several years. In 1938,
he opened the T. Foster
Martin Appliance Store
at 712 Monroe Street.
He operated the store,
continuously at the
same location, until
his retirement in 1975.
[In 1972, also the year
Aldyth died, he sold the
store to his son-in-law,
Mark Marshall (husband
of daughter Jean), who
himself had worked in
Joyous teenagers, swimming in Pine Lake in the summer of 1920. John Hilt
Lake Ice Co. in the background.
the store dating back to around 1950. Later, Marshall closed the store in December of
1979...the same month T. Foster Martin died. Several years later, in the 1980’s, the building
was razed for a parking lot.]
T. Foster Martin passed away on Dec. 3, 1979 at the age of 90. Impressively, he had
lived at 1528 Michigan for a total of 62 years, a sweeping historical epoch encompassing
(chronologically) the First World War, the Roaring 20’s, the Great Depression, World War
II, the post-war economic boom, the Cold War era, a moon landing...and the first month of
a hostage crisis in a country called Iran.
The house was built in the Queen Anne style, popular between 1880 and 1910.
It is classified under the sub-type “Free Classic,” popular after 1890, as evidenced by its
front classic columns grouped in units of three, raised to the porch rail level. Other Queen
Anne features include a steeply pitched front-gabled roof, an asymmetrical facade with a
one story partial-width porch, overhang on the sides of the house to interrupt the vertical
surface, and an extended gable peak supported by corbels.
The house was bought by Thomas Coe in 2002. Mr. Coe is the choir director at La
Porte High School, now celebrating his 10th year in that role. In Sept. 2005, he and Robin
Coe were married. Robin is a graphic designer for a video production company, which
may have something to do with the fact that the entire house has been redecorated under
her direction! (One of the reasons for “revisiting” this house, 5 years after it was on the
2003 Candlelight Tour, is to show the dramatic “metamorphosis” it has undergone.) Almost
every room in the house is totally different from before, and the Coes feel it is so much
better than it used to be, as the architectural details are appropriately highlighted by the
updates. The kitchen floor is new, put in this past summer. The former walk in attic upstairs
The David Wynkoop Farm
Home of José R. & Christine Rosario
3643 North State Road 39 -- Built circa 1858
Decorated by: Christine Rosario
The Wynkoop House, located in Center Township in La Porte County at 3463
North State Road 39, was purchased in 1991 by José R. and Christine Rosario and opened
as the Bluestem Bed and Breakfast in 2008.
The red brick, Federal vernacular style farmhouse was originally built when
David and Sarah Ann Wynkoop owned the 159-acre farmstead between 1853 and 1864.
The name Wynkoop seems to be a contraction of Wijnkooper, a wine buyer or vintner. The
name has, properly, double “i” in the first syllable, with the second “i” extending below
the line, and curving to the left, as in physicians’ prescriptions. All double vowels, in
the Netherland tongue are pronounced long; hence the Low Dutch pronounced this name
“Winekope”; but in this country the pronunciation is now “Winecoop,” rhyming with loop,
except in Virginia, where it is sounded “Wincoop,” after the English fashion.
Records indicate that David and Sarah Ann (Hoover) Wynkoop were natives of
Pennsylvania. David was born the son of John and Anna (McClure) Wynkoop in 1821.
Sarah was the daughter of Frederick and Susannah (Miller) Hoover and was born in 1826.
They were married in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 05 January 1846. Their first two children
were born in Pennsylvania; James Edward was born 04 October 1842 and died there, a
young child, in 1847, and Mary Ann was born 11 November 1848. They were in Indiana
as early as 1851 at the time of the birth of their third child, daughter Susannah Rebecca, 17
August 1851.
Perhaps because of a possible relationship to an already established Hoover clan
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