Story, Indiana

 hamlet, unincorporated area / community, NRHP - National Register of Historic Places

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www.storyinn.com

A Brief History of the Story Inn:
This area of the state now appropriately called Indiana was opened to European settlement on September 30, 1809, upon the consummation of a treaty between Governor William Henry Harrison and the Miami Indians. The so-called "Ten O'clock Treaty" opened three million acres to settlement, the boundary being a line running from Raccoon Creek on the Wabash River near Montezuma to Seymour, marked by a shadow cast at 10:00 a.m. each September 30. That line passed right through the heart of what would become the town of Story. Today, that line is denoted by a carved limestone monument in the center of Story's village green.

The village of Story itself was founded in 1851, with the grant of a land patent from President Millard Fillmore to Dr. George Story. This original land patent is on display at the Story Inn. Dr. Story was a medical doctor who hailed from a clan of timber harvesters in southern Ohio. He and his progeny built many of the structures which distinguish this town today from the then-ample supply of domestic hardwoods. Most significantly, his home and medical office nearby both managed to survive the forces of entropy.

Story soon became the largest settlement in the area. In its heyday (1880-1929) the village supported two general stores, a nondenominational church, a one-room schoolhouse, a grain mill, a sawmill, a slaughterhouse, a blacksmith’s forge and a post office.

Story never recovered from the double-impact of the Great Depression (1929-1933) and the use of eminent domain by the state government to displace dozens of local farmers to create the adjacent Brown County State Park.

The fate of Story differed however, from the similar nearby hamlet of Kelp in that Kelp was inside the boundaries of the new park to be created, and Story was not. Kelp was demolished, but Story was left standing, but the people who kept the Story businesses in operation were removed.

The economic hardship also fostered a cottage industry producing bathtub gin of rather dubious quality, an activity which apparently kept the grain mill at Story occupied well into the 1930's. Sheriff Clarence Moore made local headlines in 1932 when he captured a still at Story; today his aged daughter discloses that several gallons disappeared from the evidence room. Sheriff Moore's grandson now serves as the Story Inn's wine steward.

The brain trust known as the United States Army Corps of Engineers flooded the area in 1960, creating Lake Monroe, Indiana's second largest lake, but consequently inundating the little town of Elkinsville and cutting Story's access to Bloomington via Elkinsville Road. Elkinsville Road is Story's main street, which now dead-ends four miles to the west at a fallen iron bridge, just past the marker denoting the spot where a town had to die so that the Bloomington Yacht Club could be born. Thusly isolated, Story's economic fate was sealed. Story’s General Store limped along until the Nixon Administration, dispensing Moon Pies, Nehi sodas and leaded gasoline (at the then outrageous price of nearly 40 cents per gallon). The Gold and Red Crown Standard gas pumps today stand as silent witness to that pre-OPEC era of profligate energy consumption.

This paucity of capital was, in retrospect, a blessing. No new construction followed the Great Depression, and fortuitously, no one attempted to "modernize" the venerable but aging structures at Story when the rest of the nation embarked upon a McCarthy-esque campaign to eliminate unsightly wooden floors, stamped tin metal ceilings and globe lighting and replace them with shiny asbestos floor tiles and dropped fiberboard ceilings sporting snazzy new recessed neon bulbs. Amazingly, the town was not even electrified until 1949. For that reason, Story is perhaps the best preserved example of a 19th century small town that survives in the American Midwest.

The entire town of Story, Indiana is now a country inn/bed & breakfast, offering fine dining, catering, and lodging. The second floor of the Old General Store (briefly a Studebaker buggy factory in the 1920’s) has been renovated into four quaint bed & breakfast accommodations. The Treaty House, Doc Story’s homestead, the Alra Wheeler homestead, the Carriage House, the Old Mill, and other historic buildings around town have each been tastefully and authentically renovated into guest cottages, many with kitchenettes and hot tubs. You may take a virtual tour of the rooms by clicking here.

Story’s Old General Store, replete with its creaky wooden floors, pot-bellied stove and long-retired Standard Oil Crown gas pumps out front, is now a celebrated gourmet restaurant known as the "Story Inn." In this unparalleled ambiance, guests can now enjoy such dishes as locally-raised Bison Fillet, New Zealand Imported Rack of Lamb, Marinated Boneless Breast of Duck, or Linguini al Frutti di Mare with a fine California Cabernet or German Gewürztraminer, and topped with a fresh fruit cobbler or crème caramel. The restaurant is open every day but Monday for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Dinners are by reservation only. Seasonal hours may apply, so we recommend that you call in advance November-March, just in case we’ve gone fishing.

Nature has reclaimed most of Brown County, and today the area surrounding Story is wild and natural. Story sits at the edge of Salt Creek, a labyrinthine 100 mile system of quiet, slow-moving tributaries which now form the backwaters of Lake Monroe. This moist bottomland, now under the protection of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, is a spectacular spawning ground for fish and fowl alike, a place of serenity and raw beauty found nowhere else in Indiana.