Published: April 23, 2009 02:20 pm      

New Albany's Culbertson Mansion trying to raise money to bring back 19th century piece

Return the urn

The drive is on to raise dollars needed for bringing back a historic urn to the Culbertson Mansion.

Historians believe the sizable stone urn dates back to at least 1869, when the mansion was built at 914 E. Main St. in New Albany. Joellen Bye, site manager of the mansion, said pictures show the urn sitting in the front yard of the house in 1886.

The urn is still in New Albany, and its current owners have agreed to sell it to the mansion for $6,000. After years of trying to get it back, Bye sees light at the end of the tunnel.

“This is a very large, ornate, stone urn and we would not be able to have one reproduced for that amount,” Bye stated in an e-mail.

Floyd County historian David Barksdale passed the urn “a million times” growing up in New Albany, but said it was probably the late 1980s when he realized that it was the same urn, now sitting in front of a house along State Street.

It is believed the urn was auctioned away from the mansion in 1899, according to Barksdale. The urn has likely been at the State Street location longer than it was at the Culbertson Mansion, as a 1910 picture shows it sitting at that property.

“To me, it’s pretty exciting to think that an original piece of the mansion is coming back to the site,” Barksdale said. “Hopefully, the community will dig deep to help bring this to fruition.”

Barksdale credits antiques appraiser Stephen Anshutz for negotiating with the current urn owners, who were reluctant to sell the piece at first.

The holders were offered $6,000 by a Lexington businessman for the urn, and eventually they decided to offer it to the mansion for the same price. Anshutz said the owners — Jessica and Edward Trudeau — have been good to work with, and have several antiques beyond the urn.

Jessica Trudeau said they turned down other offers because they wanted the urn to stay in New Albany.

“My husband and I are very excited to see it go to a locally operated historic site,” she said.

Anshutz teased that the hardest part now — aside from getting the necessary funding — will be moving the massive urn back to the mansion without it breaking.

“It’s going to be quite a feat to get it out of there,” he said.

The nonprofit Friends of Culbertson Mansion has started raising the funds to meet the $6,000 price tag, with donations from the community welcomed. The offer expires in June, leaving the mansion less than two months to come up with the funding.

Contributions are tax deductible since the organization is nonprofit.

The smaller urn located in front of the mansion now will pale in comparison to the original, Anshutz said.

“Just to see something more proportional to the house will be an interesting achievement,” he said.



SO YOU KNOW

• For information on donating, call Joellen Bye, site manager of the Culbertson Mansion, at 812-944-9600. Checks can be mailed to Friends of Culbertson Mansion at 914 E. Main St., New Albany, IN 47150.