I. Floyd Garrott Tenant House Tour


Introduction

The I. Floyd Garrott Tenant House is an original Sears, Roebuck & Co. house in The Hampton style. It was built in 1921 by Charles and May Stubel as a rental house and would have cost $1,681. The house was moved from North 9th Street to The Farm in 2004.

The house includes a living room, dining room, kitchen, and 3 bedrooms, as well as a bathroom and a back entry room. The house has a total of 900 square feet not including the basement which would have been used for storage, laundry, and the furnace. 

The majority of farms in the Wabash Valley in the 1920s were operated by tenant farmers. The more modest sized house would have been ideal for the tenant family. These families were hired by the farm landowner. They would be allowed to live on the farmland and be provided with pretty much everything they needed to live a decent life in exchange for their help on the farm. The tenant houses were comfortable and convenient houses. It was important for the landowner to make sure they had everything they needed. If the tenant was not happy about the way they were living, they would be less likely to work as well as they could and landowners wouldn’t want that.

Explore the I. Floyd Garrott Tenant House and see how the tenant family would have lived!