Seller Story: Indianapolis, IN

“Both of my parents were born and raised in Indianapolis. They met in high school, started going steady in 1947, and after nine years of dating, got married and were together until my father passed away in January. He was the first board certified allergist in Indianapolis. His father was an orthodontist and his brother was a dentist, so Dad had to become a “real” doctor, as my grandfather liked to say.

I grew up in this house. It was built by a man named John Kleinops who bought and developed the land, which at the time was an old Christmas tree farm. All of the pine trees are planted in rows. Ours is a custom home that looks like a Swiss chalet, and that’s because John had a cabinet shop across the street from us where he’d hired craftsman from Southern Bavaria. They built all of the cabinets and did the trim work on the house by hand.

The house was featured in two different catalogs: the company that did the work on all of the windows, and the Romweber catalog, since much of our furniture came from their oak collection. But my mom also kept the house looking like a magazine, it never was a mess. If there was a party, you’d finish eating and she’d do the dishes right then. Her front room would always be vacuumed. When we’d leave the house we’d put one footprint on the carpet and hear the vacuum running by the time we got back to the car.” – Tom Haynes Jr.

How are your parents’ interests reflected in the house?

There are quite a few trains because my dad worked his way through college and medical school by taking jobs with the railroad in the summers. He had an LGB garden train set that ran around the outside of the pool and one that ran around the basement. It had maybe 10 engines, 60 cars and a couple of miles of track.

And your mother?

She loved Shirley Temple because she grew up on her. And I don’t know how the collection of Royal Doulton jugs started, but she was always adding to it. They’d get them when they’d travel to different places. We spent 5 years looking for the John Barleycorn jug in the sale, and we finally found it in St. Charles, Missouri.

What do you remember about them entertaining?

They very much entertained. About 4-6 times a year, we had anywhere from 20-80 people over. We were amazed at the amount of silver we found in the house! We did all of the major holidays for our family and we’d have big gatherings out by the pool. On top of that, they’d have parties that were a mix of their friends. Our neighborhood was full of business owners, doctors, lawyers and judges, and they all became close. In fact, several of them got together and got the Indiana Pacers going in the American Basketball Association in 1967. My father was one of the original owners.

My mother was a member and president of an organization called Starlight Musicals, which brought big stars the local Butler Theater. After their performances, she would often host the after-party, so there are pictures of people like Andy Williams, Perry Como, David Cassidy and Liberace with her out around the pool.