7 Homes, 3 Businesses and a Tree House in 35th NPA Home Tour on Saturday

By The Times of Noblesville | September 14, 2022
(The Times photo courtesy of Betsy Reason)
Amanda Roush’s 1890s house at 1118 Cherry St., will be among 11 stops on the Noblesville Preservation Alliance’s 35th annual Historic Home Tour this Saturday in Old Town Noblesville.

What makes an Old Town Noblesville family open up their home for hundreds of guests to walk through?

The love of old houses. The desire to share their house with others who love old houses. And a reason to get going on their old-house projects. 

“We’ve been planning to be on the tour for several years,” said Amanda Roush, one of seven homeowners on Noblesville Preservation Alliance’s 35th annual Historic Home Tour this Saturday. “The tour has definitely lit a fire to complete many of the projects that were on our to-do list.”

Her 1118 Cherry St. home, which is pictured on NPA’s Historic Home Tour promotional poster displayed around downtown, is among 11 stops on the tour, which runs 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tour tickets are available at the Hamilton County Museum of History and Old Sheriff’s Residence and Jail and at Seminary Park at 10th and Division streets and online at https://preservationhall.org/

The Roush family house was built in the 1890s. The family has lived there since June 2019.

“We’ve done a full exterior renovation on the house since moving in. It was covered with asbestos siding and also did not have a wrap-around porch. We restored the exterior clapboard and rebuilt the porch to map original fire maps from the late 1800s to restore back to the original footprint,” she said.

Roush has been a member of the NPA board for two years, currently serving as vice president.

Decker/Souders/Schmidt Home — 1107 S. 11th St., John and Michelle Schmidt home, vernacular style, circa approximately 1900.
First Friends Church — 1055 Division St., serving Quaker community, circa 1982.
Gerrard/Hendricks Home — 1080 Christian St., Lois Hendricks and Jason Walsh home, vernacular farmhouse-style, circa approximately 1910.
Hamilton County Museum of History and Old Sheriff’s Residence and Jail — 810 Conner Street
Meyer Tree House: 1138-1/4 Cherry St., built by Kurt Meyer in 2022 from locally salvaged materials.
First Baptist Church/Birdie Gallery — 195 S. 5th St. (c 1875) Originally First Baptist Church, became the gallery in 2005. Point of Interest: Riverside Cemetery, Cherry and Fifth streets.
Olvey/Smeltzer Home — 584 S. 10th St., Pam Smeltzer home, front gable-style, circa 1900. Also, a special event will take place at Seminary Park, 350 S. 10th St.
Taylor/Roush Home — 1118 Cherry St., Matt and Amanda Roush home, Victorian architecture, circa approximately 1890.
Richwine Building — 98 S. 9th St., Gregory Richards, California Mission & Craftsman-style building built in 1915.
Heinzmann/Lawson/Goodman Home — 1049 S. 9th St., Grant & Bailey Goodman family current owners, Victorian-style architecture, circa approximately 1837.
Baker/Eads Home — 1297 S. 9th St., Michael & Stephanie Eads home, wood-framed vernacular style, c. 1898-1905.
(Photos courtesy of Noblesville Preservation Alliance)
Here are photos and locations of the 11 stops that will feature on this year’s NPA Home Tour. The event will run from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets are available at the Hamilton County Museum of History and Old Sheriff’s Residence and Jail, at Seminary Park at 10th and Division streets and online at https://preservationhall.org/

“Our first introduction to Old Town was via the Home Tour about five years ago,” she said. “We fell in love with the charm of the town and the tour itself. We moved to Noblesville about three years ago, and have wanted to be on the tour since finishing up our exterior renovation in 2020.”

The family’s recently completed projects include a full remodel of the upstairs laundry and bath, as well as “a refresh of the kitchen.” She said, “Since moving in, we’ve touched every room in the house in some fashion. We still have two bathrooms to finish remodeling in the future.”

Her favorite area of the house is the entryway, due to the original quarter-sawn oak woodwork on the stairs.

“I am an avid DIYer and wanted a house that had many projects to complete. The original character and details in our house are just beautiful, and can’t be found in newer builds,” she said.

“DIY is my passion. All the work that has been done in the house with the exception of the exterior renovation and some plumbing were done by my husband and me,” Roush said.

Last week, when this journalist contacted Roush about featuring her on the home tour, Roush wasn’t yet ready to open her house for company. So only an exterior house photo was snapped as she smiled and posed for a newspaper photo in her front yard.

That said, Historic Home Tour guests may be even more intrigued to be the first visitors to see her house after her DIY projects are completed this week.

Roush, who is this year’s Home Tour chair, said NPA rotates the area of town annually so that the same homes aren’t toured too frequently.

“We have a five-year rule. There must be five years between the last tour of a home before it’s available to be on the tour again,” Roush said. “We have a committee that solicits homeowners in the chosen section of town by reaching out door to door.”

Roush, a certified public accountant who hails from Toccoa, Ga., where she went to Stephens County High School, and then graduated from North Georgia College, is a manager for RSM and does financial systems automation consulting. She and husband, Matt, who works at Allison Transmission, have two kids, Addison, 9, a fourth-grader at North Elementary, and Hudson, 2. They have three Shih Tzu, Peyton, Bella and Sophie. The Roushes relocated to this area about six years ago from Georgia. Matt’s family is from Fishers and graduated from Hamilton Southeastern High School in 1998. He was attending college in Georgia when they met. Besides working on their house, she enjoys playing with her kids and reading.

She said, “NPA is so excited and proud of the homes that will be on the tour and we hope that our visitors really enjoy the day. This is our primary fundraiser annually and we appreciate the community and sponsors for their support.”

Contact Betsy Reason at betsy@thetimes24-7.com.

Posted in Betsy Reason, Columnists