All images © 2005 by Robert E. Pence
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Twenty-two-year-old William Digby platted the town of Lafayette in 1825. It became the seat of Tippecanoe County in 1826. The city's current population is about 44,000, and West Lafayette, across the Wabash River, is home to Purdue University.Lafayette has a national award-winning downtown, with many historic nineteenth-century buildings proudly showing restored facades and occupied by active businesses.
From October 20th through the 22nd, 2005, I attended the Second Cornelius O'Brien Conference on Historic Preservation and Indiana Main Street, held at the Holiday Inn Select. I skipped out on most of the meetings and seminars, and spent most of the three days touring the city on foot with my camera. Thurdsay and Friday were mostly cloudy, gloomy and rainy, but Saturday morning provided occasional relief before the rain returned in the afternoon.
On Friday afternoon, I walked across the bridge and up the hill to the Purdue Campus, where I was a student for one year in the 1950s. The campus has changed so much, with many new buildings and many trees, that it took a while for me to get my bearings. I didn't take any campus pictures on this trip, but I'd like to do that in the spring.
On with the photo tour …