The Founding Father - John H. Barker - In 1968, the Barker mansion was presented to the city of Michigan City by Catherine Barker Hickox of New York. It was her wish that the homestead should serve as a cultural center, in memory of her father, the late John Henry Barker, who was born in Michigan City in 1844. However, the Barker story actually begins in 1836 with the arrival of her grandfather, John Barker Sr. Searching for new business opportunities, he had left his home in Andover, Massachusetts at the age of 22 and chose to settle in the frontier community called Michigan City. Immediately successful as a general merchant, he later became a grain broker and, subsequently, the owner of a commission house receiving and forwarding merchandise from vessels plying the lakes. Meanwhile, he had married and had two children who would survive him: a daughter, Anna, and the above-mentioned son, John H. Barker. At the onset of the railroad age, realizing the potential in the manufacture of freight cars, he brought an interest in a small car manufacturing plant in 1855; shortly thereafter it became known as the Haskell & Barker Car Co. Due to government contracts, business prospered even during the Civil war years and came to be an important factor in the city's growth. In 1869, he retired and his son, abandoning a successful business in Chicago, became general manager of the company. Thus a favorable economic environment and an inherited keen sense of business opportunity helped make possible the phenomenal success which John H. Barker enjoyed after becoming president of his father's company in 1883. In the ensuing years, the factory grew to have a possible annual output of 15,000 cars, and the accumulated estate grew to an estimated fifty to sixty million dollars by 1910. In 1922 "Haskell & Barker" merged with the Pullman Company, and is now known as Pullman-Standard, a division of Pullman, Inc.

The Opulent Era - "The years at the beginning of the century were good years: no major wars, no income tax ,a low public debt, uncrowded streets, young ladies in lace dresses with mutton chop sleeves, and little boys in sailor suits." It was during this era that John H. Barker devoted himself to developing the car works, which brought him world renown. Having lost his first wife, Genia Brook and his three infant children by death, he was married for a second time in 1893 to Katherine Fitz-Gerald. Their only child, daughter Catherine, was born in 1896. And so the times were ready for an extensive enlarging of their homestead at 631 Washington Street. Planning of the reconstruction and much of the interior decorating was placed in the hands of Frederick Perkins, a Chicago architect, and the new home was completed in 1905. Copied after an English manor house, it was furnished in luxurious turn-of-the-century style with important furniture and art objects purchased by Mrs. Barker from New York collectors. Most of its fireplaces are of hand carved marble and the walnut and mahogany woodwork on the lower floor is especially beautiful.

Catherine Barker Hickox - Catherine Barker Hickox will be fondly remembered as a woman who never forgot her friends and cherished her roles as wife, mother, and grandmother. Born to great wealth, she treated it with a sense of obligation and responsibility. She personally directed the distribution of large sums of money to charity. In 1924 she established the Barker Annuity Fund which provided pensions for former Haskell & Barker employees who were not eligible for benefits under the newly established Pullman plan. When the purpose of the Annuity Fund had been fulfilled, the remaining balance was transferred to the Barker Welfare Foundation that had been founded in 1934. The Foundation has continued to be an effective instrument for giving and many of her family are still actively involved.

Despite steadily declining health and almost total blindness during the last years of her life, Mrs. Hickox was concerned with plans for the restoration of the mansion and with the Center's future. Money was provided for restoration and arrangements were made for the return of original furnishings.

Mrs. Hickox died on November 18, 1970, at her home in New York. Her body was brought to the Barker Civic Center where members of her family gathered to greet old friends who called to pay their respects. On November 21, following a service at St. Mary's Catholic Church, she was buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Michigan City.

In the course of each year, great numbers of people gather at the Center for meetings or for tours. Michigan City is fortunate to have this charming historic memorial, and the community is grateful to the donor, Catherine Barker Hickox, daughter of John H. Barker.