Anthony Korty House

Dates:

c.1869-1870, demolished 2003

Location: 1101 Ferry Street, Lafayette, Indiana

This house was built about 1870, and Anthony Korty is first listed as living in the house in the 1871-2 directory. There was an earlier building on the site, the Railroad Hotel, which housed employees of the Toledo, Wabash & Western Railroad. The Railroad’s passenger depot was at the east end of North Street, and the freight depot was at the east end of Brown Street.

Anthony Korty was born in Hanover Germany on June 20, 1821, and settled in Fort Wayne in 1842 or 1843. He came Lafayette by canal boat in 1842 or 1844. He returned to Germany in 1847 or 1849, and brought his father, John Henry Korty, a tailor (-1869), his brother Bernard L. (1826-1917), his two sisters, Mary G. and Mrs. Susana Lammers, and his bride-to-be, Maria Gesina Drees. He also brought back Henry Mohlman, the son of another sister, and his mother, possibly on a later trip to Germany. The name was originally Korte, but a customs agent wrote Korty, and Anthony later decided that that would be the correct English spelling for the pronunciation. He Married Maria Gesina Drees (1827-1903) on Christmas Day, 1849. In 1866, Mr. and Mrs. Korty traveled to Germany.

Anthony Korty first worked as a contractor, and built many buildings on Main Street. On August 23, 1851, Korty was working as the contractor for the P. & O. Ball Block on the south side of the square (now site of the Loebs Building), when the scaffolding collapsed, injuring all of the workers. Korty’s leg was broken, and he decided to give up the contracting business. He soon started a grocery store in a building on the south side of Main Street between Fourth and Fifth. The store was later moved to a brick building that Korty built on the northwest corner of 11th and Ferry Streets. Anthony Korty died July 4, 1904.

The house remained in the family for many years. Annette Korty, the granddaughter of Anthony Korty, owned the house until 1973. The house was heavily damaged by arson on the night of February 22-23, 2003 and demolished the next day. This is a sad loss for the Jefferson Historic District, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.

December, 2002 Gable detail
  Detail of porch (added c.1880s)