"Stage Coach Stop, Saloon,
and P.O Razed at Prospect"

Springs Valley Herald, Thursday, September 11, 1965
(no byline is included)

Submitted by Jeanne Richardson Baldwin

When a small, rickety house was razed recently at Prospect, little notice was taken by passers by as few realized the historic significance of the property.

Not even the new owners, Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Qualkinbush, were aware that the building which they had purchased from Mr. and Mrs. George Dalton had once served as a saloon and stage coach stop along the New Albany and Vincinnes Turnpike.

The second oldest town in Orange County, New Prospect was laid out Sept. 4, 1836 by Nathan Pinnick. An auction of the new town's lots took place on Sept. 5, 1839. But already several years before Prospect was a town, there was a post office there. It was located in the old house which was recently torn down.

Following the stage coach era, the building was turned into a grocery store-post office combination. One of the later proprietors was Uncle John Richardson.

Mrs. Qualkinbush became interested in the building's history when workmen noticed the unusual manner in which it has been constructed. The frame of the house had been put together in sections which contained grass and straw.