Shirk-Edwards House
50 North Hood Street, Peru
Storied Heritage
In Peru, Indiana, the Shirk-Edwards House is distinguished by its grand architecture and past owners, including a national trailblazer in women’s suffrage. Today, that heritage is overshadowed by the house’s visible deterioration, including peeling paint, a leaky roof, and a porch perilously close to collapse.
Real estate investor and banking magnate Elbert Hamilton Shirk added onto an earlier structure to create the Italianate residence c.1862, but its association with later owners Richard Elbert Edwards and Marie Stuart Edwards represents an equally important chapter in the house’s history. In 1921, the Edwards hired Indianapolis architect Merritt Harrison to give the house a Neoclassical makeover, including a new stucco exterior. Marie Stuart Edwards, leader of Indiana’s Women’s Franchise League and a key figure in creation of the National League of Women Voters, lived in the house from 1914 to 1970, using the property as a home base while championing social causes and women’s rights in Indiana and beyond.
An absentee out-of-state owner currently holds the vacant property and has yet to take action to address the house’s growing list of code violations or the City’s direct requests for repairs. Meanwhile, the Shirk-Edwards House is at a tipping point, in need of significant investment to preserve its architectural and cultural legacy.
Todd Zeiger
Vice President Preservation Services & Heritage Trades
Indiana Landmarks
574-232-4534
tzeiger@indianalandmarks.org
Don Sturch
Mayor
City of Peru
765-472-2400
dsturch@cityofperu.org
Bruce Carson
Building Commissioner
City of Peru
765-469-1074
bcarson@cityofperu.org
Saving threatened buildings takes teamwork. You can be a part of that team. Reach out to local leaders. Let them know these buildings are important to you. And support state and local preservation groups.