Window Treatment for The Historic Core (the 1849 town plat)

Local Window Treatment Experience in The Historic Core (the 1849 town plat)

Housing stock in the 1849 plat: 1870s to 1930s, plus a century of infill

Hancock County's assessor data runs through Beacon rather than a queryable public endpoint, so there's no parcel level build year for the historic core and we don't quote one. What is sourced: the plat dates to 1849, the surviving housing is largely 1870s to 1930s, and the ACS counts 288 units in the town built before 1940 against 1,935 total. The styles run from late-19th century vernacular frame and gable front and wing through Craftsman bungalow to 1940s and 1950s minimal traditional infill. Lots are smaller, sometimes deep and narrow town lots, though exact dimensions aren't published anywhere. One street can hold an 1880s frame house, a 1950s infill and a 2015 rebuild.

Story mix is genuinely mixed here: one, one and a half and two story, with no published ratio. That matters more than it sounds. A one and a half story house on Pearl Street puts bedroom windows into the slope of the upper floor with short walls beside them, which limits where an outside mount can land, while the same owner's ground floor carries high head heights and tall narrow openings. Add 175 years of settlement on a plat laid out in 1849 and squareness stops being a precaution. It's the default assumption. We take a square check on every opening in the house, and where one is out by more than a quarter inch we say so before you choose between an inside and an outside mount.

What the windows in the 1849 plat actually do, and where an inside mount fails

Count first, because it sets the budget. A pre-1940 house in the plat runs 14 to 22 openings including the basement, and the mix is many small openings rather than a few large ones. There's no two story great room glass anywhere in this district, so the products that get sold on a wall of glass are simply the wrong conversation. What you do have is front door transoms, tall narrow openings with high heads, and the occasional attic gable opening. The transom over a front door is usually best left uncovered: it's the detail that dates the house, and a movable treatment sitting inside one is a compromise you'll notice every day.

Depth is where jobs go wrong. Real wood jambs with narrow flat or molded casing are the norm, plaster returns show up in the oldest houses, and storm window build ups are common. A build up can quietly remove an inch and a half of usable mounting depth without being visible from inside the room, which is enough to push a 2-inch blind headrail from a flush inside mount to one standing proud of the trim. We read mounting depth at the head of each opening rather than at the sill. Where it runs short, an L-frame outside mount or a compact roller cassette keeps the treatment tight to the casing instead of floating off it.

What we specify inside the 1849 plat

There's no single package for the historic core, and anyone quoting one over the phone hasn't seen the openings. The controlling facts are these: real wood casing you don't want to hide, openings that measure out of square, storm window build ups that steal depth, and a sidewalk close enough on Main Street and Broadway that ground floor privacy is a real question. National pricing for custom treatments runs $250 to $2,600 per window and shutters $175 to $800 per window. With 14 to 22 openings in a house, that range matters more here than in a small ranch. Custom fabrication takes 2 to 5 weeks, so there's no reason to rush a decision on a house that's stood since the 1890s.

Streets, Memorial Park and the schools around the 1849 plat

The historic core sits between Main Street, Broadway and Memorial Park, and the street list reads like a 19th century town because it is one: Church, Mill, Walnut, Staat, Merrill, Pearl, School, Oak, Poplar, Railroad, McCarty, Baker and Center. FoxGardin Family Kitchen, Toasty EMBER, Sunrise Donuts and the Pink Elephant all sit inside walking distance, which is the reason the local guide reports historic core inventory doesn't stay on the market long. Children here attend Fortville Elementary School, then Mt. Vernon Intermediate School and Mt. Vernon Middle School, then Mt. Vernon High School, all under the Mt. Vernon Community School Corporation.

No historic district, no design review, no covenant

This is worth knowing before you spend money: nothing in Fortville's historic core is regulated. The town has no local historic district and no historic preservation commission, and Hancock County's two National Register districts are both in Greenfield, twelve miles south. Fortville's only listing is a single private house, the Browne-Rafert House at 534 North Merrill Street, added in 2015, and a National Register listing on a privately owned house imposes nothing on what its owner does with private money. The practical result is odd. An owner in the 1849 plat has less oversight of an exterior change than an owner in a 2015 subdivision with an active association.

Window Treatment Services in The Historic Core (the 1849 town plat)

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Towns We Serve Near Fortville

The Historic Core (the 1849 town plat) is one of several Fortville communities we serve. We measure and install across Fortville, Hancock County, and surrounding areas.

The Historic Core (the 1849 town plat) Window Treatment FAQ

Questions we hear most often from The Historic Core (the 1849 town plat) homeowners.