The Eagles Home is a historic building located in

Evansville Evansville is a city in Vanderburgh County, Indiana, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 118,414 at the 2020 census, it is Indiana's third-most populous city after Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, the most populous city in S ...

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

. It was designed by Evansville architect Harry Boyle and was built in 1912. It has served as a clubhouse, college, and law firm at various points throughout its history. ''Note:'' This includes , , and Accompanying photographs The building was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1982, and it currently serves as the Evansville office of the Jackson Kelly law firm.

Fraternal Order of Eagles

The building was designed by Evansville architect Harry Boyle and was constructed in 1912 for a local chapter of the

Fraternal Order of Eagles Fraternal Order of Eagles (F.O.E.) is a fraternal organization that was founded on February 6, 1898, in Seattle, Washington, by a group of six theater-owners including John Cort (impresario), John Cort (the first president), brothers John Considin ...

. Originally made up of those engaged in one way or another in the performing arts, the Eagles grew and claimed credit for establishing the

Mother's Day Mother's Day is a celebration honoring the mother of the family or individual, as well as motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society. It is celebrated on different days in many parts of the world, most commonly in Mar ...

holiday in the United States as well as the impetus for

Social Security Welfare spending is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifically to social insurance ...

. Their lodges are known as "aeries". The organization's success is also attributed to its funeral benefits (no Eagle was ever buried in a

potter's field A potter's field, paupers' grave or common grave is a place for the burial of unknown, unclaimed or indigent people. "Potter's field" is of Biblical origin, referring to Akeldama (meaning ''field of blood'' in Aramaic), stated to have been pur ...

), the provision of an aerie physician, and other membership benefits. The local chapter was successful enough that in 1940 a rear addition was completed on the building, giving the building 32,000 square feet on three floors. By 1965 the group began discussions about moving to a new location. However, the Eagles' restrictive (and often racist) membership policies caused delays in a proposed move to another downtown location. By 1968 it had identified a new location at a building on a 21-acre tract just west of Burkhardt Road on Boonville Highway.

Lockyear Business College

By the late nineteenth-century, a few business colleges operated in downtown Evansville, probably spurred by the recent invention of the typewriter. Melvin H. Lockyear co-founded Columbian Business College at Second and Main streets in 1893, and four years later the school was incorporated as Lockyear Business College. The school relocated to 209 NW Fifth St. where a new facility was built in 1911 (immediately adjacent to the Eagles Home in what is now a parking lot). In 1968 the college acquired the Eagles Home nearby and used it as the

students' union A students' union or student union, is a student organization present in many colleges, universities, and high schools. In higher education, the students' union is often accorded its own building on the campus, dedicated to social, organizat ...

. Besides offering traditional business courses, the Lockyear Business College offered a popular Dale Carnegie salesmanship development program that graduated over 6,000 by 1962. Lockyear was approaching its centennial when it closed in April 1991 after the school's owners filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In March 1992 the Eagles Home building was sold to National City Bank at a sheriff's sale after foreclosing on $400,000 in loans made to former officials of Lockyear. The original college building was razed in 1993 to make way for a 41-space courtyard parking lot, but the Eagles Home remained standing.

Professional and law office use

In 1994, the building was converted into office space and used by an accounting group and a law firm. About 6,500 square feet was occupied by Kemper CPA Group. About 5,700 square feet on the second floor was used by the law firm of Mattingly, Rudolph, Fine and Porter (later more commonly known as Rudolph, Fine, Porter & Johnson, LLP ("RFPJ") until 2014 which merged with the Jackson Kelly law firm). By 2006, the entire building was occupied by RFPJ and Lockyear Title until the merge with Jackson Kelly.

References

Notes

{{National Register of Historic Places in Indiana National Register of Historic Places in Evansville, Indiana Buildings and structures completed in 1912 Buildings and structures in Evansville, Indiana Fraternal Order of Eagles buildings Clubhouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Indiana 1912 establishments in Indiana