The Marstellar Street Days

Marstellar Street is right on the edge of campus. My grandparents and mother lived in two homes on this street. I never knew why until I took my mom back to the homes - the Horticulture Building is on the same street as the homes!

This is the entrance to the Horticulture Building that Earl used to enter and exit every day. It is on the side of building and almost catty-corner from their second home.

 Enjoying a moment in the gardens near the greenhouses. (Not those he worked in.)

The greenhouse where Earl Honeywell did some of his work.

254 Marstellar Street, West Lafayette, Indiana 

The family's first home on Marstellar Street and the home my mother came home to after her birth on September 21, 1928 in Home Hospital. It was a duplex, and the Honeywells lived in the south side. The Freemans lived in the other side, and their son Dick, and my mother are still good friends and in contact to this day!

One day my Grandfather decided to cook gruel. Not a good idea as he rarely cooked, leaving that duty to my grandmother. The concoction was so awful that he took it outside and threw it on the driveway, hoping the weather would cause it to dissipate. Well, that mess of food was so tough and thick, it would not melt in the heat or the rain!

24? Marstellar Street, West Lafayette, Indiana

Their second home on Marstellar Street looked like this and was located at 24? Marstellar Street and across from the Horticulture Building. Unfortunately, it has been razed and is now a vacant lot. The duplex in this picture is the building next door and looks the same as the Honeywell home was. 

My mother told the story of leaving this house for her first day of kindergarten. As she walked down the street to Morton Elementary, she went under a tree that was shading the sidewalk. That tree happened to have a flock of birds in it, and the inevitable happened. SPLAT!! Back home she went, crying, and to change into another dress.

(Story of crawling under the coal truck here?)

It was a very big deal when she was old enough to be allowed to walk down to the corner of Harrison and Marstellar Street by herself. There was a light post there that she remembered as the marker for as far as she was to walk. She and Dick Freeman would also walk to the post and one-up each other, touching the post and saying, "My father works on this floor of the building." "Well, MY father works on this floor!" (touching a higher point.) Mom laughed as she recalled, "Now we both know that the BEST offices were actually on the ground floor!"