Why Joel wouldn't live with Judge Lindsey Ninde?

Architectural Styles of Joel Roberts Ninde’s Houses in Fort Wayne, Indiana

Judge Lindsey Ninde

In Fort Wayne during the 1900’s, when Joel first arrived, there were two basic styles of houses being constructed: houses were either built in a box-style, resembling barns, or they were elaborate monstrosities festooned with gingerbread decoration and exuberant bric-a-brac. Judge Lindley Ninde’s twenty-one room-dark and drafty Italian villa was just such a house, and no doubt appeared garish by the modern sensibility at the turn of the century. Not only was the house big and mausoleum-like, but the surrounding estate did not have the amenities of city water, sewers, electricity, or street car lines. Because Joel was so adamantly opposed to living, even for a short while, in Judge Ninde’s massive house, Joel and Lee chose to live in a hotel in downtown Fort Wayne. Joel showed stubborn independence and must have been an extremely strong-willed woman who chose to design and build a state-of-the-art house in Fort Wayne. [i] Genetics and architectural successes in the Roberts family appeared to have played a factor in Joel’s adult life.
i] Harold Lopshire, ARCH, Fort Wayne, Indiana, interview by Corinne Toth, April 17, 1998 and May 1, 1998.