Killackey Hall Street Park
Throughout the historic neighborhoods of St. Joseph you can find the “steps to nowhere;” retaining walls and stone steps leading to…. an empty lot. Sometimes the house was lost to demolition, other times to fire.
In the 700 block of Hall Street, right in the heart of Millionaire’s Row, is just such a lot. It once was home to a grand house that was the victim of arson in the 1970s. Since that time the lot has sat empty and increasingly overgrown.
In 2020, the lot was gifted to the Preservation Guild by its owner, Louis Killackey, for use as a community resource.
The first step is to clean it up!
While this is an ongoing effort, it was kicked off in great style with a “clean-up day.” Members of the Guild, the Old Town North Neighborhood Association, and good citizens worked hard to clear much of the overgrown vegetation and start the Park on the road to being an asset for St. Joseph.
In 2019, the Preservation Guild (formerly the Historic St. Joseph Foundation) launched the Historic St. Joseph Emporium, an online marketing tool for historic properties in St. Joseph. At the heart of the endeavor is the website where the properties are featured. For each property, we give the usual realtor information: price, square footage, the number of bathrooms, etc., and we provide links to the listing agent and their listing of the property. However, where the Emporium is different from other “old house” listings is our emphasis on the history of the property and the people associated with it.
For each listing on the Emporium, the staff of the Preservation Guild spends hours researching the history of the structure. That research serves as the backbone of the listings on the site and for the social media posts that follow. Utilizing Facebook and Instagram, we publish pictures and stories about the properties on the Emporium and provide links back to the website. We have developed a nationwide following!
The intent is to showcase the fabulous historic houses and buildings that are available in St. Joseph in order to attract dedicated owners to take them into their next century of life!
If you have a property that you would like to see listed on the Emporium, please contact us. Discover the Historic St. Joseph Emporium Website.
