The Barker Mansion

The Founding Father

In 1968, the Barker mansion was presented to the city of Michigan City by Catherine Barker Hickox of New York. It was her wish that the homestead should serve as a cultural center, in memory of her father, the late John Henry Barker, who was born in Michigan City in 1844.

However, the Barker story actually begins in 1836 with the arrival of her grandfather, John Barker Sr. Searching for new business opportunities, he had left his home in Andover, Massachusetts at the age of 22 and chose to settle in the frontier community called Michigan City. Immediately successful as a general merchant, he later became a grain broker and, subsequently, the owner of a commission house receiving and forwarding merchandise from vessels plying the lakes. Meanwhile, he had married and had two children who would survive him: a daughter, Anna, and the above-mentioned son, John H. Barker.

At the onset of the railroad age, realizing the potential in the manufacture of freight cars, he brought an interest in a small car manufacturing plant in 1855; shortly thereafter it became known as the Haskell & Barker Car Co. Due to government contracts, business prospered even during the Civil war years and came to be an important factor in the city's growth. In 1869, he retired and his son, abandoning a successful business in Chicago, became general manager of the company. Thus a favorable economic environment and an inherited keen sense of business opportunity helped make possible the phenomenal success which John H. Barker enjoyed after coming president of his father's company in 1883. In the ensuing years, the factory grew to have a possible annual output of 15,000 cars, and the accumulated estate grew to an estimated fifty to sixty million dollars by 1910. In 1922 "Haskell & Barker" merged with the Pullman Company, and is now known as Pullman-Standard, a division of Pullman, Inc.

The Opulent Era

"The years at the beginning of the century were good years: no major wars, no income tax a low public debt, uncrowded streets, young ladies in lace dresses with mutton chop sleeves, and little boys in sailor suits." It was during this era that John H. Barker devoted himself to developing the car works, which brought him world renown. Having lost his first wife, Genia Brook and his three infant children by death, he was married for a second time in 1893 to Katherine Fitz-Gerald.

Their only child, daughter Catherine, was born in 1896. And so the times were ready for an extensive enlarging of their homestead at 631 Washington Street. Planning of the reconstruction and much of the interior decorating was placed in the hands of Frederick Perkins, a Chicago architect, and the new home was completed in 1905. Copied after and English manor house, it was furnished in luxurious turn-of-the-century style with important furniture and art objects purchased by Mrs. Barker from New York collectors. Most its fireplaces are of hand carved marble and the walnut and mahogany woodwork on the lower floor is especially beautiful.

It consists of 38 rooms, 7 fireplaces, and 10 bathrooms. The main floor rooms are: foyer, library, drawing room, dining room, kitchen, Mr. Barker's study and bedroom, valet's quarters, butler's pantry and the servants' quarters. The second floor contains bedrooms, a morning room, bathrooms, spacious closets, and a linen room. The third floor housed a ballroom, Miss Barker's schoolroom, her governess' bedroom and bath, and a trunk room. The basement was very functional, containing devices for vacuum cleaning, a cooling system, and an "intercom."

Adjacent to the library patio is an Italian sunken garden; to the south is a garage, built in 1924 to house a Lincoln car. The Barkers' horses and carriages were kept at Earl's Livery Stable at Washington and Michigan Street and later at the Barker farm. Nothing seems to have been left undone in providing the utmost in comfort and luxury. Having been built within the very shadows of the "car shops" which made it all possible, the beautiful Barker home has remained a fitting monument to a great industrialist.

The Barker Legacy

It is tragic that the delightful home was enjoyed by the family for only five years. Mrs. Barker died on May 24, 1910, and on December 3 of that same year Mr. Barker died of pneumonia. The daughter, Catherine, was left an orphan at the age of 14, and thus became one of the world's most wealthy young heiresses. After her parents death she attended preparatory school and a finished school in New York; the Michigan City residence was maintained as her home, although occupied only intermittently after her marriage to Charles V. Hickox in 1930. In 1948 the homestead was given to Purdue University for a study center; in 1968, the ownership reverted to the Barker Welfare Foundation, of which Catherine Barker Hickox was president. The Barker Welfare Foundation subsequently presented the residence to the city.

In many ways Catherine Barker Hickox emulated her father whose contributions to charity during his lifetime amounted to well over a million dollars. The following "bear the permanent impress of his generosity:"

• Barker Hall (originally built in 1886; later reconstruction in 1929 donated by daughter, Catherine) erected as a memorial to his three children who died in early childhood.
• Trinity Cathedral (1889) to which he contributed the greatest share of the cost, now known as Trinity Episcopal Church.
• The Michigan City Public Library (1895) to which he contributed 33-1/3 of the cost.
• St. Anthony's Hospital (1904); the cost of building and equipment being $80,000, "a very goodly part of which was contributed in the name of Mrs. John H. Barker."
• The band stand, peristyle, and first conservatory in Washington Park.
• The Ames Band (1904) to which he gave an annual endowment. This later became our municipal band.
• The Y.M.C.A. (1910); for which he contributed one half of the projected cost of $100,000.
• The "History of Michigan City" written by Oglesbee and Hale in 1908. This is one of the best sources of Michigan City history, and we are indebted to Mr. Barker for his interest and liberal financial aid to the authors.

Catherine Barker Hickox

Catherine Barker Hickox will be fondly remembered as a woman who never forgot her friends and cherished her roles as wife, mother, and grandmother. Born to great wealth, she treated it with a sense of obligation and responsibility. She personally directed the distribution of large sums of money to charity. In 1924 she established the Barker Annuity Fund which provided pensions for former Haskell & Barker employees who were not eligible for benefits under the newly established Pullman plan. When the purpose of the Annuity Fund had been fulfilled, the remaining balance was transferred to the Barker Welfare Foundation that had been founded in 1934. The Foundation has continued to be an effective instrument for giving and many of her family are still actively involved.

Despite steadily declining health and almost total blindness during the last years of her life, Mrs. Hickox was concerned with plans for the restoration of the mansion and with the Center's future. Money was provided for restoration and arrangements were made for the return of original furnishings.

Mrs. Hickox died on November 18, 1970, at her home in New York. Her body was brought to the Barker Civic Center where members of her family gathered to greet old friends who called to pay their respects. On November 21, following a service at St. Mary's Catholic Church, she was buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Michigan City.