Unique Experiences in Madison County Indiana!
Have you been to Indiana’s Madison County? I had not. It was only recently; that me and my friend Annie Jansen paid a visit. We came to see this part of eastern Indiana. We attended a few festivals. While there, we learned about Hoosier culture in this part of the state. Hosted by Anderson Madison County Visitor’s Bureau. Maureen “Mo” Lambert, CTIS Marketing Tourism Director took us around this area once known “GM City”, home to a big General Motors Plant. “There was a natural gas boom here, discovered in 1887. It was home to glass and car manufacturing,” Mo said.
Madison became a manufacturing area.
On the Made in Madison County website we read about the fascinating manufacturing history. “Enticed by free energy and inexpensive land, manufacturers and supportive businesses stampeded into the Hoosier farmland along White River.”
This changed things. “The county changed from an agricultural to an industrial based economy: from farms to factories. Glass producers were some of the first to arrive—everything from plate glass for windows to heavy glass for bottling to fine hand-crafted cut glass for the home. Ceramics, tile, boxes/containers, carriages, wagons, metal-working, and some of the first automobile producers followed. Between 1880 and 1900, Madison County gained 43,000 people!”
When the gas boom ended, things changed again. Madison County is flourishing today although it is a different place. There is not as much heavy manufacturing as in years past. There is a different climate with creativity abounding. Some glass history still exists like the amazing Carol’s Legacy Crystal in Elwood, Indiana
Caro’ls Legacy Crystal
Jeff Ball the owner of Carol’s Legacy Crystal shared about his wife, “Carol started working at St. Clair glass in Elwood. The lady that hired her was Joe St. Clair’s sister, Jane Ann. She needed a hand. Carol worked there for almost four years.”
She loved the glass so much that she took her pay in glass, collecting the beautiful St. Clair glass. They even have some of the St. Clair glass at the shop, part of Carol’s original collection. She passed in 2016, and Jeff changed the name of their business to Carol’s Legacy in her honor. Today there are four employees.
On the Carol’s Legacy Crystal website, they offer information about them and what they do. “When you reach out to us, you’ll be working directly with Kelly Bixby, our dedicated Gift Shop Manager. Kelly will expertly guide your order through our process, ensuring it reaches the skilled hands of Danny Buttler, a 7th generation glass artist with over 35 years of experience. For any custom designs or airbrushing requests, our talented artist, Wendy Otto, will bring your vision to life with meticulous detail.”
They create an array of beautiful art glass and offer it for sale in the shop.
“I love the lamps,” Jeff said of the items he has in the shop. They have also started a whole new business of cremation art. They also do some functional items as well, like glass discs for the DC subway! Carol’s Legacy is a beautiful place to watch, shop, and marvel. It is one of the places along the Indiana Glass Trail.
The World’s Largest Ball of Paint.
I love roadside attractions. When I got the chance to visit the World’s Largest Ball of Paint, in Alexandria, I was excited, especially when I learned we would get to add a layer to the big ball.
The whole thing began on January 1, 1977, when Mike Carmichael encouraged his son, who was three years old at the time to cover a baseball with paint. He pointed out a picture on the wall of his son painting the first coat. “Now,” Mike said, “we have been painting it for 48 years.. What gave me the idea in highschool a ball accidently got into some paint. So, I put some wire around it and kept dipping it in paint. It took two years to put 1,000 layers on it.”
Ten years later, the tradition continued. “It gets painted one to six times a day, every day. I get visitors from all over the world. This is in the Guiness Book of World Records. We just turned 30,000 plus layers of paint, and I believe we will be in another book.”
It is so cool to look up and see the list of all of the countries and celebreties that have come and painted just like Annie and I did. A young girl was on hand, and she picked out the bubble gum pink color. It was white before we started. We applied the 30144th layer!
When we were done, we received a certificate!
The tradition continued, and today, the ball weighs in at 2.5 tons and is over 14 feet in circumference. It has become a tourist draw. “One to seven groups come a day,” Mike said. “3500 visitors stopped last year and more have come this year.”
A little more!
When coming into the drive, we noticed cute sun paintings. Mike said, “During Covid, the elderly couldn’t get out. I would set one of these in the yard to give them hope.”
Since then, the suns have shown up all over and become a fun commodity for sale. This is a fun, creative place to visit, and definitely a one-of-a-kind attraction!
A tour of the Paramount Theatre
Through Sean, who does IT for the Paramount, we secured a tour of this magnificent theatre! Rich Jorn, The Executive Director, took time out of his Sunday morning, after we attended church, to take us around. We could not believe how beautiful this entertainment venue is.
On the website they share, “John Eberson started building this atmospheric theatre in 1928. It opened on August 20, 1929… The Paramount was primarily built for vaudeville and movies, to escape the real world. The design was to give the illusion of a Spanish casa or villa complete with wrought-iron gates, statues, a ceiling painted like a sky with stars that really twinkled, and clouds projected onto the ceiling which slowly moved across the sky….”
Details!
Rich shared there are 12 of these John Eberson atmospheric theatres left in the USA. Originally, there were 155. Indiana has two of the 12 remaining theatres: The Embassy in Fort Wayne and the Paramount here in Anderson. An interesting sidenote was that birds, peacocks, doves, and pheasants were a favorite for John Eberson, the birds were his trademark.
One of the first acts were the Marx Brother starring in the film, The Cocoanuts. This was one of the first sound films.
Rich really spoiled us by warming up the amazing Grand PAGE organ that was installed in 1930. The sound just reverberated through the theater! This is one of only three such pipe organs remaining in their original theatre installations in the United States. The PAGE, was installed to accompany films, was used continuously until 1984.
There is a ballroom on the 3rd floor. They are completing new dressing rooms, and we saw nooks and crannies and beautiful statues. We saw places no one ever goes.
We couldn’t quit talking about this our whole Indiana trip! Now, we just need to come back and watch a performance!
There are beautiful statues, murals, festivals to attend and more in Madison County. Read all about what we found on our tour here!
