Fowler Mansion owes $20k in property taxes, says it will be forced to close

LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The Fowler Mansion likely will close its doors to the public later this year because of property taxes.

Matt Jonkman, board president for the 1852 Foundation, pledged to keep the doors open for the restaurant and event site through the end of its current reservations. After that, the mansion built by Moses and Eliza Fowler in 1852 will close to the public.

The nonprofit organization that's operated the mansion since 2015 applied for and received a property tax exemption from Tippecanoe County Assessor Eric Grossman eight years ago.

“It was one of several where there was a public space in a historic building that was going to be turned over to the public, open to the public and members of the public could come in and receive education,” Grossman said during an interview Tuesday afternoon.

“At that point, it was in its infancy," he said. "The programming was not developed, but it seemed like it had the foundation for an exempt cause.

“What they described in the original 2015 exemption hearing never took place the way they described it,” Grossman said.

1852 Foundation left owing after exemption pulled

In January 2022, Grossman pulled the property tax exemption for the Fowler Mansion at 10th and South streets, meaning that the 1852 Foundation owes more than $20,000 in property taxes this year.

“That will come out of my pocket,” Jonkman said, explaining he's not going to fundraise for the money for a mansion that still has hundreds of thousands of dollars needed for repairs.

"What’s at risk here is a $20,000 per year tax bill," Jonkman said. "The 1852 Foundation cannot bear that. We already have a backlog of over $250,000 in deferred maintenance we need to fund.

"Twenty thousand a year off the top will just bleed us dry faster and the house will suffer."

Generating revenue to fund upgrades to the Fowler Mansion

Jonkman and his family created the foundation in 2015 and invested $2 million in repairing and upgrading the mansion.

“The idea was we’d bring it up to code so we could continue to do the weddings and stuff,” Jonkman said Tuesday morning during an interview.

In addition to being a museum that the public may visit and tour, the foundation also created a restaurant venue and an event site that the public may rent for weddings and parties. Revenue from the restaurant and events would fund continued restorations on the house, while providing people the opportunity to be educated about the county's history.

“The core idea was that it would be a nonprofit. It would be charitable," Jonkman said, "but it’s doing its own work to preserve itself. So it has a solid future.”

The pandemic pulled the rug out from under the idea of the event site funding the nonprofit mission because the stay-at-home orders dried up business. Still, Jonkman and his family kept the mansion afloat.

The restaurant and event venue caught Grossman's attention.

Assessor says mansion is operated as a business

Grossman's belief is that the 1852 Foundation is operating the Fowler Mansion as a for-profit business and is not eligible for property tax exemptions.

“What they described in the original 2015 exemption hearing never took place the way they described it,” Grossman said.

“The door was perpetually locked, and there was no one there," Grossman said of public access to the museum.

Grossman said the 1852 Foundation repurposed the mansion by creating a subsidiary business inside it and upgrading the kitchen for commercial-grade equipment. The foundation employs staff, has menus for its five-days-a-week restaurant, a liquor license and community event space that is advertised for wedding rentals for up to $10,000.

“This was a major change of use from the original exemption application,” Grossman said. “Whenever you change the building’s use, you file another application.

“To us, it’s a restaurant," Grossman said. "We removed their exemption from the 2022 assessment date. At that point, they’ve been operating for years as a restaurant.”

Jonkman appealed the removal of the exemption at a hearing last week, but the property tax review board has not published its ruling. Jonkman is preparing for the worse.

"We will try to get the house rezoned as residential to cut our tax burden by half," Jonkman said.

“I’m really hoping some other opportunity shakes out," Jonkman said. "I’m hoping somebody has an idea. I really don’t want to close it. I just have no more money to put in."

If anyone has an idea to keep the mansion open to the public, Jonkman asks that they email him at jonkman@fowlerhouse.org

“We look at it from the perspective of having an exemption and not having to pay into basic government services is a massive privilege,” Grossman said describing the common misunderstanding of his actions to pull exemptions. “That privilege requires production of paperwork and records and substantiation that the privilege is earned.”

“I am generally unsuccessful in explaining to these organizations the importance of the public funds and the importance of equity, and just that having 10% of the parcels exempt is something that requires constant review to maintain fairness,” Grossman said, adding he regrets that people take this action personally.

“It’s a big part of what we do,” Grossman said.

Reach Ron Wilkins at rwilkins@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @RonWilkins2.