There is more than 100 years of history to be found in Muncie, and in a neighborhood near downtown, residents living in the area’s historic homes are embracing times gone by.

While the Emily Kimbrough Historic District serves as the backdrop for events such as the Old Washington Street Festival, people are always living in the homes. The vintage houses and churches include a variety of architectural styles, from Victorian to Italianate.

There’s an appreciation of Muncie’s past in the neighborhood. Michael Mavis is a historian with the Delaware County Historical Society and he said the gas boom and the manufacturing that came to Muncie in the late 19^th century and early 20^th century created the area, which became home to the nouveau riche of the city.

A combination of private and neighborhood efforts has made a significant difference in the preservation of the area and helped to reverse decades of neglect, according to Historic Muncie.

“The 60s were pretty bad,” Mavis said. “A lot of the homes were divided up into apartments.”

In addition to being a local historic district, the area has been part of the National Register of Historic Places since 1980. Nowadays, people come to Muncie and, by extension, the events such as the festival to tour the area and learn about the history of its houses and the people who lived in them.

“There’s still some work that needs to be done, but all of these houses are works in progress,” Ball State architecture professor Tom Collins said as he gave a tour of what’s known as the Little House.

He and his wife own the home and they love giving tours and talking about the three-floor wood home and its history. It’s named for John W. Little, the Civil War veteran who built the house around 1876. Little owned a feather duster manufacturing company, and later in his life, he was active in real estate and insurance. A major renovation to the house in the early 20^th century after his death added new porches, a steeper roof and a grand stair with stained glass windows.

Collins said there is a lot to see in old buildings that isn’t found in newer buildings.

“I don’t mind being on the home tour and having people walk through because people get so much joy seeing things that they don’t see in everyday buildings,” he said.

He said the people who come through the house have plenty of memories to share.

“I’ve had former owners and relatives of former owners who will tell me things like, ‘I went to a wedding in your house underneath that chandelier’ or ‘I used to sneak into your house after my curfew by climbing through the icebox’ and things like that,” Collins said. “Those are kind of neat stories that you hear from people.”

He said, on the whole, the neighborhood is quite diverse in terms of architecture.

“You can kind of see how styles and tastes and things changed over time,” Collins said.

Mavis said the attitude toward the homes has changed from the surge of hands-on restoration in the 1970s and 1980s.

“Now we’re the neighborhood that people just want to live in,” he said. “They don’t necessarily want to restore a house. They just want to live in the old house and be in a neighborhood that’s a neighborhood.”

But there’s still more to come on the renovation front for the Little House.

“It’s kind of a constant process,” Collins said. “There’s always something to do.”

Future plans for the home include updates to two upstairs bedrooms.

Chrstine Hatfield is a reporter for a Ball State University arts journalism class.