Traveling Through Time With the Shelby County Historical Society
Feature Article on Bonnyconnellan Castle. Topic: DOWNTOWN/BUILDINGS
Written by Rich Wallace in February, 2000 (Photos by Tom Homan)

BONNYCONNELLAN CASTLE INTERIOR STRIPPED AND SOLD...Pg 2

The Castle survived 113 years and more than a dozen owners. After selling his school desk factory in 1895, Mr. Loughlin continued to live in Bonnyconnellan Castle for a number of years. The failure of Sidney's German American Bank in 1904 created personal hardships for the Loughlin family and many others. The Castle, which had been placed in trust by the creditors of the bank, was sold in 1907 to Col. J. B. Tucker of Urbana. Mr. Loughlin, who then moved from the area, died penniless in 1917.

Col. Tucker, who also took over the Loughlin factory site and converted it to the manufacture of wooden bicycle rims, became very wealthy. The subsequent owners did not fare quite as well, and the Castle was passed from family to family. Stanley Bryan, the proprietor of the Venice Chocolate Company, owned it in the 1920's. Local physician Dr. Austin Edwards lived there eight years until his death in 1943. Army Major Charles Price owned the Castle until 1949, and it was used as a nursing home by the Morris family in the 1950's.

Bonnyconnellan survived 113 years of various owners, some perhaps indifferent to her needs, but she could not survive the plan of her current owners to carve her up and sell her part by part. Gone are the hand-tooled leather panels in the den. Only cold plaster walls remain. The richly appointed wooden panels of oak and walnut have been cut away and sold. The impressive wooden ceiling beams are gone.

Through its long history until this year, the Castle had helping hands along the way. Rose Loewer had purchased the Castle as an investment in the late 1950s. She never stayed there overnight during her nine year ownership because "I'd be terrified. I read too many detective stories," she stated in a 1967 Sidney Daily News article.

bonnyconnellanstairsbefore.gif (116174 bytes)

Above is the before -- below is the after.  A gaping hole in the ceiling only hints at the once stately wooden staircase. The woodwork surrounding the fireplace, the doorways, and the doors themselves have been stripped and carried off.

bonnyconnellanstairsafter.gif (95817 bytes)

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