New Castle’s Casa Mañana Is Out Of Place—In A Good Way
Located about 50 miles of cornfields east of Indy, New Castle is quintessentially Hoosier. Basketball reigns supreme—you can visit the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame, spend a night at the Steve Alford All-American Inn, or tour one of the largest high school gyms in the country. So how does a classic Midwestern city end up with a stunning Spanish Revival estate that looks like it was plucked from the hills of California?
Casa Mañana (“house of tomorrow”) was built in 1929 and has changed owners only four times. Remarkably, 90 percent of the furnishings in the home are original. Each time it sold, the entire contents of the home were included. Whether looking at photos from 1930, 1960, or today, nearly everything has remained the same.
The original owner chose expensive, superior materials during construction—solid, hand-hewn walnut throughout, windows of leaded and stained glass, and gorgeous Spanish tilework. Arguably the most stunning feature, though, is one that architects at the time didn’t want to do (“You’re crazy to put in a skylight that large,” the story goes). After three tries, the owner found someone to do the job, but that person refused to sign his name on the blueprints. The massive skylight caps a 25-foot ceiling in an atrium that connects separate wings of the house and feels like a private courtyard in Mallorca. Its sunbaked stones, lush greenery, and soothing fountain transport you far from Indiana.
If you manage to tear yourself from the atrium, you’ll find five bedrooms, three bathrooms, and two half-baths in 6,300 square feet of living space, all restored by the current owner, and a three-acre fenced and gated lot with hills and manicured paths. Then there’s the small-market discount. In the new work-from-home world, this might all add up to a slam dunk.
Address: 800 Hawthorn Rd., New Castle
Price: $575,000
Agent: Jon Kindred, F.C. Tucker, 765-465-9409
Photos courtesy of Jeff Riggins.
