Construction on the Seiberling Mansion began in October 1889 and was completed in the fall of 1891. The house was built for Monroe Seiberling of Akron, Ohio at a cost of $50,000.

The architecture of the house is a mixture of Neo-Jacobean (Queen Anne) and Romanesque Revival styles. It was designed by Arthur LaBelle of Marion, Indiana. Built at the height of the gas boom in Indiana, the house was originally heated and illuminated by natural gas.

The mansion includes eight rooms on the first floor, seven on the second, and a grand ballroom on the third floor with an entrance to the rotunda outside. The grand porch overlooks the grounds. Interior woodwork includes ornate design and parquetry of native walnut, oak, maple, cherry, mahogany, and tulip poplar. The Victorian staircase is stunning. Moorish themes are featured in brass doorknobs, plates, hinges, and sash lifts.

Since 1972, the Seiberling Mansion, because of its historical and architectural significance, has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places by the U.S. Department of Interior.
 

Fun Facts About Kokomo Indiana

It is called the City of First

And here is the list!

• First Commercially Built Auto by Elwood Haynes. Road tested July 4, 1894, on Pumpkinvine Pike east of Kokomo.

• First Pneumatic Rubber Tire invented by D.C. Spraker, President of Kokomo Rubber Tire Co. in October 1894. The tire was made of strips of three-ply rubber, canvas and other wrappings of vulcanized rubber wound around a slender pole.

• First Aluminum Casting by William "Billy" Johnson at the Ford & Donnelly Foundry in 1895.

• First Carburetor developed by George Kingston in 1902. The mixer was made from a piece of brass pipe 6" long with a cap fitted to one side in which a floater and wire gauge regulated the flow of fuel.

• First Stellite Cobalt-base Alloy the wonder metal, discovered by Elwood Haynes in 1906 while searching for a metal to be used in producing tableware.

• First Stainless Steel Invented by Elwood Haynes in 1912 while attempting to satisfy Mrs. Haynes' demand for tarnish-free dinnerware.

• First American Howitzer Shell used in actual warfare. It was made by the Superior Machine Tool Co. in 1918.

• First Aerial Bomb With Fins Invented in 1918 by the Liberty Pressed Metal Co.

• First Mechanical Corn Picker developed by John Powell in the early 1920's.

• First Dirilyte Golden-Hued Tableware invented by Carl Molin in 1926.

• First Canned Tomato Juice developed by Walter Kemp, Kemp Brothers Canning Co. in 1928 at the request of a St. Louis physician in his search for baby food to use in his clinic.

• First Push-Button Car Radio by Delco Radio Division of G.M. in 1938.

• First All Metal Life Boats & Rafts manufactured by Globe American Stove Co.; Lifeboat in December 1941; Life Raft in November 1943, nicknamed "Kokomo Kid."

• First Signal Seeking Car Radio by Delco Radio Division of G.M. in 1947.

• First All Transistor Car Radio
  

Crown Point Cemetery

Kokomo Indiana

August 10, 2007

Civil War Memorial

To All Her
Soldiers and Sailors
Who served or died on land and sea
To Maintain The Union
Howard County
Dedicates This Monument
1886
 

Quotes Taken From The Civil War Memorial

The muffled drums’ sad roll has beat

The Soldiers last tattoo

No more on life’s parade shall meet

That brave and fallen few.

Stranger
Tell the American People
That they to whom this
Monument is dedicated, offered their lives that our government might live. Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.

-OA Somers-
 

On fame’s eternal camping ground
Their silent tents are spread
And glory guards with solemn round
The bivouac of the dead