The tour begins at the grist mill on Main Street (Mill Street) at the southwest corner of old Metamora. The mill is now a part of the Whitewater Canal State Historic Site operated by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources and serves as a museum and a working mill. Jonathon Banes constructed the mill as a cotton mill in 1845. Very little cotton was grown in southern Indiana and in 1856, it was converted to a flour mill. Local farmers would bring their wheat to the mill to have it ground into flour; some flour would be returned to the farmers, most would be re-sold by Banes. The ownership changed several times but it remained a flour mill. The mill has burned twice, a common problem in the 1800's, and been rebuilt. The power is provided by a breast water wheel that was installed in the lock (Lock #25 or Metamora Lock) after the canal was no longer active. The mill has been in operation for 155 years except for the period from 1941 when the Laurel Feeder Dam washed out until 1947 when the Whitewater Canal (a 14 mile segment) was restored by the state of Indiana.

Jonathon Banes built this two-story white brick house across the street from the mill in 1845. Banes was a carpenter who migrated from Pennsylvania and worked in Indiana as a superintendent in the construction of the canal. He established his residence in Metamora and married Maria Mount, the daughter of David Mount, a platter of the town. Jonathon inherited the Mount farm when David died; that farm is now the Pennington farm that can be seen south of Metamora.

The Banes House originally had four rooms, two on the second story, two on the first story. Each room had a fireplace. You can see the chimneys at each end of the house. Note the Laurel stone sidewalks and the iron fence.

South on Banes Street where it meets Mount Street is a Greek Revival-Italianate, two-story, double residence built in 1860 by the Gordon brothers, Milton and Mahlon. It housed both families for several years possibly a case of compatible sisters-in-law. The Gordon brothers were involved in the milling business. They were members of the Odd Fellows Lodge and were some of the larger property owners in the township. Their mills, flour and woolen, were built in 1845 at the site of Lock #26, the Gordon Lock. Both mills burned in 1856. Notice the original limestone hitching post, the iron fence and the sidewalk. The latter made of Laurel stone, a locally mined limestone.

The Odd Fellows Building at the corner of Banes and Main Streets is the only three story building in Metamora. The Gordon brothers built it in 1853. This brick structure has served several functions. The first floor was used for mercantile purposes; the second floor for the Masonic Lodge until they had their own building; and the third floor by the Knights of Pythias. The Odd Fellows, Protection Lodge #63, was organized in 1849. Its instituting officer was Pleasant Hackelman who was later a Union Army general. He was killed in the battle of Corinth, reputedly the only general killed in the Civil War. Metamora men, (94) formed F Company in the 18th Regiment, one of the first Indiana regiments in the Union Army. They fought at Missionary Ridge, Chickamauga and the Battle of Atlanta. Note the original identifying lodge signs on the front façade, K of P and IO-F.

The Gordon brothers constructed this two and a half story frame building in 1848. The first floor was the Gordon General Store. Later it was used as a bank by Milton's son, William Gordon, before the Farmers Bank was built. The other half of the first floor was Caroline Gordon's Candle Store. The second floor served as the original meeting place of the Odd Fellows and was also used by the Grand Army of the Republic (Civil War veterans). Later the second floor was used at various times for a skating rink and a dance hall. The added brick building in back of Gordon Hall was an icehouse. The walls are three bricks in thickness for insulation; sawdust from a local sawmill insulated the ice.

The original building was destroyed by fire, probably in 1856. Joseph W. Jackson re-built and operated a meat market and grocery store through the latter part of the 20th century and was still in business during World War II.

The original store on this site probably burned. Alfred Blacklidge built the current store in 1885 and sold a general line of merchandise. Because he was a carpenter, we assume that he constructed it himself. Blacklidge went bankrupt in the Panic of 1907 and sold the store to Ellsworth Martindale and Stephen Jenks in 1910. They continued to operate it as a general store until at least 1915.

The 1875 Masonic Building is a two story stone building; the front façade is constructed of tulip poplar crafted to resemble limestone blocks. The first floor was originally a grocery store, L. Allison and sons; note the name above the front door opening. The Masons bought the second floor from Allison in 1888 for $1,500 and moved from Gordon Hall to this location. The windows on the Masonic floor are of cobalt blue glass hence the name "Blue Lodge".

Approximately a year after the building of the Van Camp Drugstore in 1850 the front of the store blew out from a kerosene explosion in the basement storage area. Kerosene was rather new on the market and people were not accustomed to dealing with inflammable liquids. Because this is a small town and the pace is slow the story of the explosion still occasionally arises in a conversation. The Van Camps established a tomato cannery west of town near the junction of Pennington Road and U.S. #52 and later became the Stokely-Van Camp Company.

Very little history is known of this building. It was probably constructed in 1850 at the same time as the Van Camp store since they share a common wall. Lucy Martindale was the proprietress of a confectionery store which we know was still in operation in 1915. Lucy was the daughter of Amos Martindale who operated the hotel next door from 1870 until the turn of the century.

The hotel is the oldest commercial building in Metamora and was the sole hotel since the town was established. Ezekiel Tyner built it in 1838 the same year that Metamora was first platted by David Mount and William Holland. He was the canal boat shipping agent for the Whitewater Canal Company. By 1856 Thomas Tague had purchased it, expanded it to the west (the addition is easily visible) and began operating it as a hotel and tavern called Metamora House. Amos Martindale assumed ownership in 1870 and changed the name to Martindale House. The exterior of the hotel appears now much as it did in the mid-19th century.

Canals in Indiana were constructed within river valleys the most level land available. The canal would be parallel to the river; wherever a tributary stream entered the river; it was necessary to have a structure to carry the canal over the stream. These aqueducts were vulnerable to flooding by the streams and were a continual problem.

Duck Creek Aqueduct is the only aqueduct that remains of over a hundred that once existed in the U.S. The poplar trusses rest on limestone abutments, the siding is also poplar and the roof would originally have been shingled. The aqueduct was built in 1843, destroyed by flood and rebuilt in 1847. The floor now has a metal sheathing over the planked bed. The two openings on each side release water into Duck Creek and help control the water level of the canal.

Henry Pond operated a tannery in this building in the 1830's. The bark of local oak was used for the tanning of hides. The house had two stories above ground and the tannery was in what is now the basement. In 1841, Pond was instrumental in forming the Christian church in Metamora, an outgrowth of the Campbellite movement. The new congregation at first met in the upstairs of this house. In 1871, he donated the land next to the tannery for a church, which was then built and dedicated. Isaac Newton Guston later purchased the Pond House and re-modeled it in the early 1890's into its present appearance. Guston was a professor who taught locally. He was a friend of many Indiana artists among which were T.C. Steele and Ottis Adams. T. C. Steele boarded in this house and painted Metamora street scenes (A Quiet Neighborhood, Metamora and A Village Street) and local landscapes.

This poplar clapboard, wood frame church exists much as it was when built in 1871. The bell tower still houses a large bell. The vertical sundial on the belfry is not original. The chancel was thought to have been added in 1890.

The congregation was organized in 1841 as a result of a camp meeting held by Alexander Campbell, the founder of the Campbellites. They met in the upstairs of the Pond House for thirty years. Pond donated the land and the church was built. The dedication was on Christmas Day, 1871.

The church was sold in 1970 and the congregation built a new church adjacent to U.S. #52. After restoration of the canal and the need for the canal boat to pass the church, the footbridge in front of the church was removed. This limited easy access to the church and necessitated the moving of the congregation.

The building is of stone mined locally. All of the exterior detailing including the one story front façade is of poplar. The front half was built in the 1840's and the north half in the late 1860's. Careful observation will make evident the slight difference in appearance of the stone on the side of the building.

It functioned as the Faulkner-Pierce Drug Store from 1840 to 1916 and then as a hardware store from 1916 to 1961. The second story was the Red Men's Lodge hall. The backroom has served several functions: millinery, shoe store, barber shop, and post office.

This building has long been associated with the business life of Metamora. It was built for Gilbert C. Van Camp about 1854. By 1861, it was the business property of Jesse and Ezekiel Washburn. The second floor was the workshop of Joseph Staub, harness and saddle maker who, in the 1880's advertised "boots and shoes made to order".

At the turn of the century, Loe and Mike Staub operated it as a shoe repair shop. The shop was relocated to the second floor and was serviced by a wooden stairway on the Columbia Street side.

In 1920, Linnie Banes succeeded Inez Gordon as Postmistress and moved the Post Office into the first floor, where it remained until construction of the new postal facility in the late 1960's.

This building is a historic structure but architectural changes over the past few decades have destroyed its integrity. The Thorpe family had a blacksmith shop in a three-generation period. They came from Bedford County, PA, and were on their way to the Mother Lode country of California. They settled in Franklin County and raised seven sons all of whom were blacksmiths. The grandfather taught the boys blacksmithing. The sons set up three shops in Metamora, one in Moscow, two in Richland and one in Cedar Grove.

The Thorpe House was built by Jim Thorpe (not of Olympic fame) in the 1840's. One of the few facts we have of its history is that it was sold in 1861 for $900. The original house was square in area occupied; additions gave it the current appearance. Jim was the son of Metamora's first blacksmith; all of the seven sons were taught the blacksmithing trade.

William Blacklidge built the Greek Revival temple and wing style house in the late 1850's. Two wings flank the two-story center 'temple'. William G. Blacklidge was a carpenter; his son, Alfred, operated a general store in town.

The bank, though a 20th century building, is considered a historic building, as it was the only bank in the town. The bank was originally in the Odd Fellows Building; it was moved to this structure when William H. Gordon built it in 1923. The building has had no structural changes and the vault remains intact in the basement. This bank is notable in that it might be the only one in the Midwest not robbed by John Dillinger.

The Walker brothers, John and Daniel, moved to Metamora from Cincinnati in 1848. They bought two adjacent lots and built this poplar clapboard two story building on the shared property line, a 19th century duplex. Note the two front doors. John and Lucy lived on one side and Daniel and Caroline on the other. There is a single central chimney; apparently the Walkers shared the chimney and had a double fireplace. The brothers built a mill on the canal, operated a distillery and a warehouse. They left Metamora after the demise of the canal perhaps due to a decrease in Irish canal laborers and a decrease in their distillery trade.

This two story house is constructed of rubble limestone; it was built in the 1850's by John and Daniel Walker. The brothers migrated in the 1840's by way of the Ohio River and the Whitewater Valley. They operated several businesses in Metamora, a general store, a distillery and a mill. This building served as a warehouse for the whiskey produced in their distillery. The barrels were loaded onto canal boats at a dock immediately below the Metamora Lock south of this building. By 1867, it was used as a brewery by A.I. Senior. In the late 1800's, it was converted into a residence. Two architectural changes have been made since that time, the addition of the east-facing porch and a recent third story.

Munroe Allison built this house in 1870. The siding is poplar board and batten, the only house of this style in Metamora. Allison was a carpenter and specialized in building railroad depots. The local folklore is that when he completed a depot here in the Whitewater River Valley he would float the surplus materials down the canal and add another room to his house. Several types of gingerbread ornamentation on the eaves of the house testify to this story.

Allison was a Civil War veteran serving as a drummer boy in the Union Army. He and Lucy were married on the then new Robling suspension bridge at Cincinnati. They raised five children in this house, which has three small upstairs bedrooms. The cupola was the last addition to the house. He wanted to be able to sit in it thinking the sun helped his arthritis.

Thomas Conner was a physician and an attorney. He had this house built in 1845. When viewed from the front the house appears to be one story, however, it is built into the hillside and is actually two full stories. The first story has a frame wall only on the south side facing the canal; the other three walls are stone. If you observe the siding on the west side, you can see where there were originally two gables; the saddle between them drained into a cistern. The pump over the cistern is still in place. Later the two gables were converted into one. The old gables though not visible are still present in the attic, complete with the original wooden shingles. Bisecting the inside of the house on the second floor is an eight-foot wide hallway with a large doorway at each end. They were not called breezeways in 1845 but performed the same function.

This lock was one of 42 locks on the Whitewater Canal, a waterway stretching at one time from Hagerstown to Harrison and the Ohio River. The lock is faced with dressed limestone over a rubble base. Wooden gates would have been at either end of the lock portion that now houses the water wheel. To move up the canal, the boat enters the lock; the lower gate is closed and water fills the lock. When the level achieves that of the canal above the upper gate is opened and the boat leaves. Going down canal the process is reversed. When the lock is not in operation the canal waters bypass the lock and flows over the adjacent dam.

After the demise of the canal, a gristmill for grinding corn and wheat was built and the lock was used as a water power source. The wheel within the lock is a breast wheel, i.e., water enters midway not above as with an overshot or below as with an undershot wheel. Another change was the introduction of the railroad on the canal route and laying of rails on the canal towpath.