Community Celebrates Memories Of O.V. Winks, Annex Buildings

By: Betsy Reason

The community gathered at an open house on Thursday to celebrate memories of Hamilton County 4-H Fairgrounds’ Annex and O.V. Winks buildings, which will be demolished this fall to make room for a new Bicentennial Hall.

The O.V. Winks Building still looks much like it did the past 70 years, with white linoleum floor, ceiling tiles and knotty pine paneling. The building through the years has been used for 4-H Club meetings, Extension Homemaker meetings, local club meetings, anniversary and birthday parties, auctions and sales, and just about anything you can think of.

“It’s where people want to meet. It’s rented a lot,” said Susan Peterson, Purdue Extension Hamilton County agent, who greeted visitors in the O.V. Winks building at the open house.

The O.V. Winks Building was named after O.V. Winks (Orlando Vanderbilt Winks), who was county agriculture agent and extension administrator from 1939 to 1966. The O.V. Winks building was the first building built at the Fairgrounds.

With the City of Noblesville widening Pleasant Street, we will soon lose the O.V. Winks and Annex buildings, and the fairgrounds maintenance garage. Plus, a $65 million, three-phase expansion project will soon begin to update the 40-acre 4-H Fairgrounds to be able to offer a larger array of programming. A new 8,000-square-foot building, called the Bicentennial Pavilion, a rentable venue to the public, which will run parallel to Pleasant Street, will be built to replace the O.V. Winks Building.

Those visiting the open house looked at scrapbooks and shared stories as well as tears, reminiscing about days gone by. But most said that change is “inevitable” though sad.

Betty Estridge, 95, Carmel, a 1946 Carmel High School graduate, has been involved with the Hamilton County 4-H program now for about 80 years first as a 4-H’er then co-founder 60 years ago of Carmel 4-C’s 4-H Club of which she is still the leader. She has a parking sign at the Fairgrounds designating her 70 years. Her granddaughter, Amber Blakley, 37, a Hamilton County 4-H’er and a 2004 Carmel High School graduate, attended the open house with her on Thursday.

She was sad but stayed positive.

“Change is good. We’re going to miss some of the things. But it’s going to be great,” said Estridge, after looking at the master plan that was displayed on posterboard in the O.V. Winks Building during the open house-style celebration.

Among the visitors were multiple generations that included Jeanne Flanders and daughter Donna Lehman and 4-H Dog leaders Linda Arbuckle and daughter Dawn Arbuckle Moos, who have all been involved in the 4-H programs for many, many years.

“This is where Junior Leaders met,” said Moos, who started in 4-H in 1970. “My wedding reception was in this building. We had family reunions for a number of years. My parents were into antiques so we auctioned here all of the time.”

Flanders, 82, Noblesville, in White River Township, came in 1959. She was a 4-H Crops leader and a mom with four kids in 4-H and then grandchildren and great-grandchildren in 4-H. She was with her daughter, Donna Lehman.

They attended a lot of Farm Bureau meetings, water conservation meetings and showed 4-H Food and Sewing projects in the building.

“There’s a lot of memories in here that I wish could be kept,” Flanders said.

Helen Dailey, 93, Noblesville, who has volunteered for 70 years for the 4-H Fair and Extension Homemakers in Noblesville, and volunteered during the time that O.V. Winks served the county. She even has a parking space with her name on it to celebrate her years.

Leah (Woodward) Fisher, 65, Noblesville, a 10-year 4-H’er in Forest Hill 4-H Club, said her late dad, Paul Woodward, who also had a parking space and now has a memorial bench by the Show Arena, and was involved with the Hamilton County 4-H program as a leader for more than 70 years. “I brought my dad’s jacket,” said Fisher, who modeled the green jacket trimmed in white with a 4-H emblem. “It hangs in my closet, and I knew Dad would want to be here.”

“We had all of our 4-H meetings here,” said Fisher, a 1976 Noblesville High School graduate whose three older brothers, her three children and all of her 10 nieces and nephews were 10-year 4-H’ers. She showed 4-H Cattle and Swine and participated in the 4-H Queen Pageant around 1975.

“They had the queen pageants in here until they took them to the Show Arena,” she said of the O.V. Winks Building, in which at one time there was a stage for pageants and other events.

What made her smile? “Memories, everybody here, thinking of Dad,” she said. “I love all of the pictures and all of the stories that Dad used to tell.”

Fisher posed wearing his jacket with a lifesize cutout of the former O.V. Winks and Winks memorabilia, which was set up as a photo booth at the south end of the O.V. Winks building during Thursday’s open house.

“You can have your picture taken with him, literally,” said Bernie Huber, program assistant for Purdue Extension Hamilton County, earlier pointing to the O.V. Winks cutout at the photo booth.

John Peterson, husband of Susan Peterson, said he came to Hamilton County in 1965 in first grade. He remembered attending meetings in the O.V. Winks building. “There used to be a fireplace over there,” he said pointing to a blank space along the wall of the building. “On a cold, snowy winter day, we’d have a fire burning in the fireplace and have our meeting,” said John Peterson, a 10-year Hamilton County 4-H’er and a 1975 Carmel High School grad. “But most of all during the 4-H Fair, this was the iconic building before the other building was built over there. This is where things happened, here and in the Annex, where everything was displayed during the Fair.” He grew up with Betty Estridge’s kids, who were 4-H’ers  in Carmel.

He met his wife, Susan (Bales) Peterson, when she was a Purdue Extension 4-H youth agent at the Fairgrounds, and they’ve been married nearly 25 years and have two daughters who were 10-year 4-H’ers.

Peterson said he knew “most everybody” at the open house.

He was a little sad but said, “A bunch of us are going to gather next week and take off the knotty pine” to save for the new building. “They’re talking about making a dedication wall in the new building.”

Peterson said they are trying to save some pieces of history.  “So when they start tearing this down, there will be something to hold onto from the past.”

-Betsy Reason writes about people, places and things in Hamilton County. Contact The Times Editor Betsy Reason at [email protected]. My own daughter had her first 4-H meeting, for Stringtown Pikers, and also learned to clog with the 4-H Clover Cloggers, in the O.V. Winks Building. Also, read more about longtime 4-H volunteer Betty Estridge in an upcoming edition of The Times.  To read more about the O.V. Winks building and history, read the Betsy Reason column from the June 22, 2023, edition of The Tiimes.