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Kintner-Withers House
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Distant view of the house
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| Nearest city: | Laconia, Indiana |
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| Built: | 1837 |
| Architectural style: | Classical Revival |
| Governing body: | Private |
| NRHP Reference#: | 80000039 [1] |
| Added to NRHP: | November 28, 1980 |
The Kintner-Withers House, also known as Cedar Farm, is on the National Register of Historic Places, south of Laconia, Indiana, along the Ohio River. Jacob Kintner, aided by his wife Elizabeth, built the structure in 1837. It is the only "antebellum plantation-style complex" within Indiana, comprised originally on 600 acres (2.4 km2) of land (this eventually peaked at 1000 acres). It is believed that Kintner was inspired to build this after sailing on the Mississippi River to New Orleans.
Besides the Classic-Revival mail house with four front and two rear Roman Doric columns 2'9" in diameter, the property also has barns for livestock and tobacco, a cookhouse, icehouse, underground milkhouse, schoolhouse (built 1850), and tenant housing for sharecroppers. There were two landings onto the Ohio River.
The Ohio River flood of 1937 reached the ceiling of the ground floor. The next highest flood of the area, in 1997, came within 30 feet (9.1 m) of the building.
Preservationists William and Gayle Cook bought the farm from Kintner's descendants in 1984 after the last full time resident of the house, Julia Kinter Withers, the granddaughter of Jacob Kintner, died in 1980 at the age of 92. Later that year they hired Pritchett Brothers Inc. of Springsville, Indiana to begin restoration of the farm. The house is painted light yellow with white trim and green shutters based on a 1898 painting by Indianapolis Artist William Forsyth[2]. In 2003 the smokehouse was rebuilt.
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