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The Metamora Historic District is significant because it
was created as a town served by and to serve the Whitewater Canal.
Metamora is a collection of nineteenth century buildings and structures, most of
which was constructed during the period of 1838 and circa 1865 when the canal
was an active commercial thoroughfare. A few building were constructed or
remodeled after the canal period when Metamora functioned as a local trading
center served by the railroad and the highway for transportation and served by
the canal as a power source for the mill industries. The villages
collection of structures reflects the association with development of
transportation in Indiana in the decades before the Civil War.
Metamora is located in the western half of Franklin
County. This county was the seventh organized (1811) in Indiana with
Brookville as the county seat.
A Metamora platter, David Mount, was one of the first
settlers in the area that became Metamora Township. He arrived from
Pennington, New Jersey in 1811, the year Franklin County was organized. He
erected a pioneer gristmill on the Whitewater River near where he would later
locate his town of Metamora. Mounts mill was the first of the many
nineteenth century mills of Metamora, of which only one has survived.
Mount's old river mill was deprived of water power with the construction of the
canal.
The town of Metamora was founded with the plat of March
20, 1838, filed by David Mount and William Holland. Their plat consisted
of 42 lots with the east-west streets of Main and Clayborn, and the north-south
Columbia Street and numerous alleys. Mount and Holland intentionally
positioned their town directly on the proposed route of the Whitewater Canal and
the Brookville Road. The canal runs down the center of Main Street.
The town was platted in 1838 after the route of the canal
was surveyed. The Whitewater Canal was constructed through Metamora
between 1839 and 1843. Metamora is situated between Brookville and Laurel
on the canal route. The canal was completed to Brookville in 1839 with the
first boat arriving on June 8, 1839 from Lawrenceburg. The first boat
reached Laurel, through Metamora in November 1843.
The canal had a profound effect on Franklin County and the
Whitewater Valley. Metamora was one of the three canal towns founded along
the proposed route. The other two towns were Cedar Grove and Laurel.
William Holland's First Addition of 1839 added eleven lots
to the west end of the original plat, north of the canal, straddling Clayborn
Street. John McWhorther's First Addition added four lots in 1847.
McWhorther's Second Addition of 1848 added five more lots fronting Wynn Street.
Metamora grew to the south with David Mount's Addition of 1848. This
addition created Mount Street and enlarged the town by thirteen lots between
Banes and Basin Street. McWhorther's Third Addition of 1852 expanded the
town by eight lots north of Wynn Street and one large lot on the extreme western
end of Metamora on Clayborn Street. The final historic addition was
McWhorter's Forth Addition of 1853 extending the town northward with eighteen
lots. All of the historic additions to the original town plot of 1838
occurred during the canal era.
Metamora never grew beyond McWhorter's Forth Addition of
1853, and the town never incorporated. However, the town survived the
demise of the canal as a means of transportation. Resourceful businessmen
saw opportunities for development of the canal as a source of hydraulic power
for a variety of mills. The town not only survived the canal period, but
supported a growing population and numerous enterprises. State gazetteers from
1849 to the 1920's provide some insight into the commercial activities and
population fluctuations. In 1849 Metamora had 200 inhabitants with no
change by 1860. In 1860 five merchants, a hotelier, seven building
tradesmen, four millers (flour, wool, and lumber), two meat packers, and three
attorneys. Other professions and occupations included physicians,
teachers, ministers, a druggist, blacksmiths, wagon, gun and barrel makers, a
butcher, tailor, and leather dealers. The town retained its population of
200 and diversity of activities in 1864. The population increased to 450
by 1880, but by 1916 dropped to 330 and fewer businesses and professions were
recorded. That year Metamora had five merchants, a miller, two physicians,
a bank, a railroad agent, an undertaker, a hotelier, a butcher and a livery.
By 1928, the population was 300 and three garages were noted in the gazetteer's
directory reflecting the growing importance of automobile traffic.
The Metamora Historic District's significance is apparent
as it contains portions of three historic thoroughfares: road, canal, and
railroad. The oldest is the road. The Brookville Road connecting
Indianapolis and Brookville was established by the Congress on March 3, 1821 to
extend mail service to the state's new capitol in the interior from the
bustling, established town of Brookville. The latter was founded in 1808
and grew in importance in 1819 when the Congress created a federal land office
for the sale of land in central Indiana after the New Purchase Treaty of the
previous year.
New businesses and housing, oriented to the automobile and
the highway developed along U.S. 52 away from the old town along the old route.
The historic buildings of Metamora suffered neglect but changed very little
until the late 1960's when tourism began to be developed. The houses and
stores served as a backdrop to the Whitewater Canal State Memorial created in
1945.
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