The Innkeepers
Rose-Aimée and Clark Butler have lived in the house that is the La Salle Bed and Breakfast since 1990. They originally purchased it for use as a dance studio in the years before Rose-Aimée became Youth Director of the Fort Wayne Ballet. They opened the La Salle Bed and Breakfast in the beginning of 2004 as a way to share the history as well as pay for some of the restoration of the home. Rose-Aimée is a native of Lille, France, and grew up largely in West Africa. Clark is a native of Hollywood, California, and he earned his PhD. from the University of Southern California. He also studied at the American University in Cairo, Egypt, and at the University of Tunis in North Africa. He is a Purdue University Philosophy Professor at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW). In addition to being a professor Clark is also active in research and is an accomplished author. He has published six books, including Human Rights Ethics (Purdue University Press, 2008) and one book-length translation of German philosophy (Hegel, Lectures on Logic, Indiana University Press, 2008). Since their marriage in 1971 Clark and Rose-Aimée have lived in Nottingham England, Bochum Germany, and Strasbourg France with their daughter, Elizabeth. They have a second residence in Strasbourg, where Clark has been taking students to study human rights law for the past three years. Clark and Rose-Aimée love hosting guests and taking the opportunity to talk with people from around the nation and the world. It is a way of “taking the temperature” of the world around.
History of the La Salle Bed & Breakfast
The La Salle B&B was created by Clark and Rose-Aimée Butler in their turn of the century Victorian home, originally built by Tom Snook in 1901. The Tom Snook house is next door to one of the oldest remaining historical houses in Fort Wayne, the 1842 house of Civil War hero Sion Bass.
The story of Tom Snook is one of American upward mobility. Historic records show that he was listed as a carpenter in the City Directory in the 1890’s (he later listed himself as a home-builder). The La Salle Bed & Breakfast was built by Mr. Snook for himself and his family in 1901, with thirty-two rooms, forty rooms including the basement out of which he worked. The third floor was originally intended for servants and the stairs from the third floor originally bypassed the more private quarters on the second floor to go directly to the first floor and basement.
A Fort Wayne Department of Planning staff report notes that the structure was built c. 1900 in the Queen Anne/Free Classical Style, with some Colonial Revival features. This cross-gable house has a very complex shape, with a variety of bays, windows, and dormers. Because the house was built as a duplex, it has two small porches that face West Washington Blvd. The property is located in the West Central Historic District, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The first-floor exterior is natural wood; however, as commonly happened before architectural preservation efforts started, the second and third floor has been covered in vinyl siding. Though there has been enormous restoration and preservation done to the building, restoring the exterior wood siding his a project yet to be undertaken.
Tom Snook built the La Salle as a rambling duplex, but with the overall symmetry interrupted by small differences between the two sides of the firewall down the middle. In part, the differences may be explained by the fact that he designed the details of the house as he went along, and in part by him using materials (for example inlaid floor designs) left over from other jobs. He also had a tendency to favor slightly more select materials and greater dimensions on his side of the house. He kept the other half empty until his daughter began living there after World War I.
In 1930, Mr. Snook cut the house in sections and moved it around the block to make way for a new commercial building. He lived in the house until he died in 1934. As commonly happened to many of the grand old homes in the West Central Historic District, the home was then subdivided into smaller apartments until Clark and Rose-Aimée Butler rescued the building in 1990. Mrs. Butler operated a dance school on the third floor until she took a full-time position as Youth Director of the Fort Wayne Ballet in 1996. The Butlers have been working on restoring the home to its former Victorian glory while adding modern amenities for nearly 20 year now. The La Salle Bed & Breakfast is a constantly evolving work in progress.
Who is La Salle?
La Salle – René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle (1643-1687) – was the first European to set foot in what is today Fort Wayne. He came from Canada to organize the Miami Indians against the British to the east, and in doing so suddenly brought what would be Fort Wayne into world history and international power politics. The year was 1669. In his memoirs, the explorer calls the site he visited “the mouth of the river of the Miami Indians” – referring to the river which is now known as Maumee. Though well known in much of the Great Lakes, he is not well known in Fort Wayne, which largely became a German city due to nineteenth century immigration.
René Robert Cavelier courtesy of www.collectionscanada.ca
Read more about La Salle on Wikipedia