I spent a few hours wandering around Winona Lake this afternoon. It was interesting to see all the changes to some of the buildings and familiar places.
They are constructing a massive ice rink / pavilion in the style of the Billy Sunday Tabernacle in the middle of the park area. The tabernacle was taken down years ago as it was dilapidated and falling apart. The new building is impressive… but a little out of character for the space, in my opinion. I’m sure it will be well used and appreciated by the community, but the design is just… I don’t know … too over the top I think. Someone commented on my Facebook post that it reminded them of a Phillips 66 gas station. It is a bright white and red steel building, after all.
Several new homes are being constructed and remodeled in the area. And the trend, sadly is not restoration. Years ago, when the renovation of the village began, there was a certain sense of doing things in keeping with the era. (And you know I love sleek minimalism in architecture, but this is not that.) Several of the early homes in the renovation was along Terrace Drive — I lived at Interlaken, a three story Swiss Chalet style house built in 1902 (how cool that my house had a name). It was wood sided and there was an attempt made to keep it to its’ original character as much as possible. This continued on to the rest of the houses in the new village — (many of which very old). They were picked up, moved around, and consequently renovated.
Fast forward to today. Many of the renovations on other houses throughout the village and the new construction houses are now plasticized in bright vinyl siding and fake wood shingles. The rest of the village was also redone similarly a few years ago (to obviously cut down maintenance costs of all the wood siding, painting, etc.). But I think in doing so, some of the authentic feel was lost. Sure, it is a tourist destination, but all the plastic just makes it kinda chintzy to me.
I drove down Sunday Lane as is my custom. I saw my old house. It was built in 1900 and had a 50-year-old red painted steel roof on it that sounded cool in the rain. Someone had put seafoam green vinyl siding on it in the 80s (no doubt) but despite that, there was a certain charm to this little cottage on the hill that overlooked the park and village below. A few years after I sold it, I drove past and it had been resided in beige, new windows put in, the beautiful big windows on the front porch replaced by a double french door on one side and a new shingled roof with larger dormers added. It still had charm, just a little less of it. Today I walked up on it and was shocked to see that they had torn off the whole roof and added a second story. A giant second story. It’s nearly unrecognizable now with 4 huge sliding windows over a slate blue vinyl gable end above the porch. Some vestiges of the little cottage remain, but very few. I’m sure it’s beautiful inside, and certainly more spacious. That’s the way of things in lake towns. The small cottages are torn down and oversized lake houses are crammed into tiny lots to maximize every square foot of view.
Anyway, I’m just rambling. Change is inevitable. Good change is welcomed and appreciated. Sometimes though, in the change, those little quirky interesting things that make a place special are lost in the trendy HGTV homogeny. Geez I sound old.