Inspiring Progress

Sometimes, preservation works slowly, then all at once. That was the case for the c.1880 Julius House at 302 E. Clark Street in Crown Point’s East Side Historic District, a property Indiana Landmarks has been working to secure since 2019. After a series of stops and starts, we successfully acquired the home in fall 2025, with plans to make improvements and offer it for sale this spring.

First alerted in 2019 to the property’s poor condition, Indiana Landmarks’ Northwest Field Office began pursuing purchase of the vacant house, aiming to ensure its preservation as one of the oldest Italianate-style residences in the city. The home was soon offered for sale at auction, but, unfortunately, an out-of-state entity made the winning bid, buying the property sight unseen in 2021.

For 145 years the house served as a neighborhood touchstone, built by Crown Point resident John Julius, who sold it to J.C. Sauerman in 1881. After several subsequent owners, the home became the property of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the 1940s before being purchased by the Czapla family in 1968, returning it to use as a family home for the following decades.