New Romantic Shelter Listing in Round Barns and Covered Bridges - Parade [14-70-(a)]
October 23, 2019: James Crouse has informed us that the Parade Romantic Shelter [14-70-(a)] is now listed in the Dale J. Travis website Round Barns and Covered Bridges.
James wrote that "the builder and owner of the bridge is Mr. Jim Irvine. It was built in 3½ weeks (while working a full-time job) to have it ready for a Rush County Heritage parade in 1986. At that time the group Rush County Heritage was formed by local citizens who wanted to save their covered bridges, when the county commissioners wanted to destroy them. After that ruckus, as each commissioner came up for re-election, he was voted out, and the county started caring for their remaining bridges."
"The romantic shelter measures four feet between the portals. The portals are ½-scale copies of the portals of the nearby Offutts Ford Covered Bridge (14-70-02). Mr. Irvine made the replacement scrollwork and corbels (both of which are Kennedy trademarks) for the restorations of the other Rush County CB as well, and provided his tracings/drawings to Dan Collum for the recent rebuild of the Cedar Ford CB (14-53-15) in Monroe County."
Rush County, Indiana
Photo by Jim Irvine
Rush County, Indiana
Photo by Jim Irvine
The bridge can be found in Rushville, Indiana on N. Offutts Bridge Road.
Editor's note: Thanks to James Crouse for bringing this to our attention and providing additional historical details. Click here for more information on the Rush County Heritage group: Rush County Heritage is 30 years old. The Indiana Lamdmarks website also has an account of the group and its success: Rush County Heritage Celebrates 30 Years.
