FRANKTON — Loretta Richardson is settling into the Sigler Street home her grandparents once owned, the same late 19th century gem with the huge front porch where her mother and aunts grew up.
Since purchasing the home at auction earlier this year, Richardson, 64, has been preparing to reclaim the home where she and her sister spent “the great years of our lives.”
“I’ve always wanted to keep it in the family, any way possible,” she says.
Childhood memories from the house include walking down Sigler Street to shop at the downtown drug store and paying a visit to the woman who operated the town’s telephone switchboard. Carol Macklin, Richardson’s sister, remembers getting the chance to connect calls herself.
There were also the parties held in the Sigler Street house, big New Year’s events with lots of cousins and their aunt playing the baby grand piano.
Sadly, the piano is now gone, but Richardson is repopulating the home with her own collection of antiques.
She remembers when the grass field across Sigler Street was a school with an easily accessible playground. On the opposite end of the field, new homes are cropping up. The way they’re set back from the street is a sharp contrast to most other homes on Sigler, older structures like Remington’s house that sit only a few yards away from the sidewalk.
Two dead ends cap Sigler Street on both its east and west ends. Sigler Street, which serves as the section of Indiana 128 that bisects Frankton, is perfectly straight and includes blocks of residential homes and a small business district in the center of town.
Sigler Street is named for Frankton’s founding family. It was “the father of Frankton” Jacob Sigler who in 1829 laid out the plan for the town’s original 80 acres. But it wasn’t until 1853, under the guidance of Jacob’s oldest son, Francis Sigler, that the town’s first lots were plotted out. The town itself, which was officially incorporated in 1871, is named for Francis.
All that history isn’t news to lifelong Frankton resident Gay Remington.
Her family has owned The Added Touch, a gift and home decorating store, in downtown Frankton for 31 years. After establishing the shop on Washington Street, Remington moved it around the corner to Sigler 16 years ago.
“When we moved to Sigler Street our business tripled overnight, and we only moved a block and a half,” she says.
Not only is a Sigler Street storefront more visible to drivers, Remington explains, but her shop gets added foot traffic because of other nearby businesses, including two banks, a dog groomer and the Frankton Public Library.
Like Richardson, Remington remembers the downtown drug store. There was also a liquor store and a bar nearby.
But her fondest memory of Sigler Street is the rows of majestic trees that used to line the street in front of the homes east of the business district.
“And in the spring and the fall, it was just beautiful driving into downtown,” she recalls. “It was gorgeous. It was just, wow.”
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Each Monday, The Herald Bulletin is profiling a street in Madison County in our On Your Street series. What’s on the street? Who lives there? What is the history? Those are questions we’ll try to answer. And it’s not just streets. Roads, boulevards and lanes will be included. If you have a street you’d like to nominate for our coverage, let Stephen Dick, assistant managing editor, know. Reach him at The Herald Bulletin, 1133 Jackson St., Anderson 46016 or (765) 640-4863 or steve.dick@heraldbulletin.com.
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November 30, 2008
ON YOUR STREET: Lifelong bonds form with Sigler Street
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