The Jay House

A National HIstoric Place in Marion

Ed. Note

The material below was taken from the official record of the National Register. It has been edited for brevity. The entire document may be viewed at the site listed below.

The Abijah C. Jay House, built in 1888, is an exemplary example of a Queen Anne-style house in Marion, Grant County, Indiana.

The house is located on the northeast corner of Seventh and Boots Streets in Marion, Indiana. With the main entrance facing Boots Street (west), the residence is placed in a neighborhood consisting of mixed residential and public-use buildings.

The house is a two-story red brick dwelling with an irregularly shaped footprint and a steep pitched compound hipped roof with lower cross gables. A one-story porch runs from the middle of the west facade around the corner to the middle of the south facade. The interior of the house features elaborate woodwork in cherry and quarter-sawn oak.

Abijah C. Jay (1838-1909) was a significant figure in local history. He was born October 12, 1838, in Montgomery County, Ohio. Along with his parents and four brothers and sister, he moved to Grant County, Indiana, in 1850. Jay attended Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana. In 1854 he married Caroline Coffin; together, they had one son. Cooper Jay.

Abijah Jay served two terms as Grant County commissioner and held that position at the time of the construction of the GrantCounty Court House. He was a member of the city council for seven years and was a school board member for nine years from 1898 to 1907. Jay was chairman of the county central committee of the Republican Party.

 As president of the school board, Jay was instrumental in obtaining $50,000 in funding from Andrew Carnegie for a permanent building to house the Marion Public Library. The library is located on the same block as Abijah Jay's house. Jay purchased the lot and built theJay House at the height of his financial and political prominence. The house is a sign of the prominence, both financially and politically, that Jay occupied in the local community.

Indiana SP Jay, Abijah C., House

From RG: 79

National Register of Historic Places and National Historic Landmarks Program Records

Historic Places Register Reference Number is 03000145. NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 10024-0018 (Oct. 1990) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places

National Archives Identifier: 132003137 Creator: Department of the Interior. National Park Service. (3/2/1934 - )

All photos from www.wikimarion.org