Hobart Then and Now: Mundell Homestead/Wise Way Grocery Store

Circa 1888, and 2011:



(Click on images to enlarge)
Top image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

I will just quote from the text that accompanied the top image in a file at the Hobart Historical Society Museum — perhaps intended for a newspaper article, but if so I don't know the date it was published.

The Mundell homestead on Old Ridge Rd., c. 1888. The original log cabin, built about 1837, is on the left.

Seated at left is Joseph Mundell, b. Oct. 13, 1800, in Green Co., Pa.; d. Aug. 20, 1888, Hobart, Ind. Standing next to Joseph is his youngest son, James, b. Feb. 28, 1844, in Hobart; d. Dec. 12, 1918, in Hobart. Seated to James' right is his mother and Joseph's wife, Amanda Malvina Sigler Mundell, b. Aug. 13, 1813, in Hampshire Co., (W.) Virginia, d. April 28, 1890, in Hobart. Next to her is James' wife, Mary Knothe Mundell, b. Jan. 20, 1853, probably in Chicago; d. Sept. 21, 1831, in Hobart. Amanda is holding James and Mary's daughter, Edna, b. Oct. 16, 1886, in Hobart, d. Aug. 22, 1937, in Hobart. The small boy is the son of James and Mary, Joseph M. Mundell, b. April 17, 1883, in Hobart, d. Dec. 3, 1965, also in Hobart.

Not long after this picture was taken, an addition was built, completely enclosing the log cabin in its walls. Mary lived in the house until the 1920's, when she built a new Sears house next door. (The Sears house is still standing, at the corner of Delaware St. and Old Ridge Rd.) The homestead was sold to the Parks family. After Mrs. Parks died in the late 1970's, it was purchased by a local businessman, who razed the house, hoping that he could get the property rezoned for commercial use. That failed, but several years later, Wiseway bought both the vacant property and the brick house east of it, tore down the brick house and the two lots became the west end of the Wiseway parking lot.

I don't know the exact location shown in the 1888 photo, just took a shot of the general area.