Ball Family Mansions with a highlight on Oakhurst

In 1887, the Ball family moved their glass manufacturing company from Buffalo, New York to Muncie, Indiana. Ball Brothers Glass Company became one of America's best-known manufacturers of canning jars.

The family purchased most of the land along the north bank of the White River in 1893. They committed themselves to community projects that would improve the quality of life for Indiana residents. An unfortunate event, the burning of one of the Ball family homes in the late 1960s served as an inspiration for the second generation of the Ball family. That inspiration would eventually blossom into more than they ever imagined: A place for lifelong learning.

The word "Minnetrista" means "a gathering place by the water", and was the name of the original home built by Frank Clayton Ball in 1894, which burned in 1967. The Ball family created the word from the Sioux word "mna" which means "water" combined with the English word "tryst".[2] The Minnetrista Cultural Center was built on the same site in 1988.

Minnetrista has four annual events: Garden Fair in the spring, Faeries, Sprites, and Lights in July; Summer Stage Fest at various times throughout the summer, and Enchanted Luminaria Walk the first weekend of December. In addition, Minnetrista hosts a Farmers Market that draws 45,000 visitors each year.

The Ball family had five brothers and two sisters, and their legacy lives on through the family homes, known as the Ball mansions, that line the street surrounded by gardens along the White River near the Minnetrista Cultural Center.

This mansion is known as Nebosham

On each side of “Maplewood” sits “Oakhurst” and “Nebosham,” also known as the E.B. and Bertha C. Ball Center.!

This mansion is known as Maplewood

Built in 1894, “Oakhurst” was home to George A. and Frances Ball. The two had a daughter named Elisabeth who developed the gardens surrounding the home in the 1930s.

And this is known as Oakhurst and where the Oakhurst Gardens behind all these Mansions takes it name

The area was later restored when taken over by the Minnetrista Cultural Center.

Today, “Oakhurst” is open for tours and features the Country Garden, Sunken Garden, Formal Garden and Oakhurst Woodland, where tourists can experience the home’s garden features that have survived more than 100 years.

Background historical information gathered from Ball State Daily archives and from Wikipedia All photos are taken by me

Now for the fun part the legends as I grew up hearing them as I am from the Muncie, Indiana area. Elisabeth parents had this playhouse build for her when she was little. She spend hours upon hours playing in her play house.

She believed that fairies lived in the woods and gardens and dedicated her life to protecting and caring for the gardens and woods surrounding the property. She kept diaries and wrote about the fairies. It is said the land is enchanted and that paranormal this take place. I don't know what to believe but I had something strange happen when I went and took these photos. I already did a blog about that and will link it at the end of this piece.

As you walk down the path you come across an outdoor library where you are free to take a book or leave one.

Remember when I mentioned fairies earlier the story goes when they were restoring the grounds and they poured the concrete for the walk way that when workers went on break and came back they found these.

Here is another picture to show you the scale of how small those little prints really are.

This is just a small part of Oakhurst Garden, this post is getting a little long so this is going to be a two part series. Stay tuned for part two and remember "Steemit Social Media, Done Right"

And for those who would like to read about the paranormal happening that happened to me you can check that out here

https://steemit.com/paranormal/@tecnosgirl/haunting-at-oakhurst-playhouse