Putnam County seat
Custom home builder and remodeler in Greencastle, Indiana.
Greencastle has some of the best old houses in the state and plenty of open, wooded ground around it. We work on both: careful renovation in town, and custom homes out in the county.
In Greencastle, the first question is which house you have: a 19th-century Italianate, a 1920s Craftsman, a post-war ranch, or bare ground out in Putnam County. Each one is a different job, and we price each one from what is actually there, on a fixed-price contract.
A town that kept its old houses
Greencastle is the Putnam County seat, with 9,820 people at the 2020 census, and it has been a college town since DePauw University was founded here in 1837. The Putnam County Courthouse at the center of town was designed by John W. Gaddis and dedicated on July 4, 1905. The Courthouse Square Historic District around it went on the National Register in 1984 with 76 contributing properties.
The neighborhoods matter more for a builder. In 2011 three residential districts joined the National Register. Old Greencastle has 79 contributing buildings dating from about 1826 to 1961, from Federal and Greek Revival to Prairie and Craftsman. The Eastern Enlargement district has 272, with Gothic Revival, Italianate, Queen Anne and bungalow work. The Northwood district (no relation, though we like the name) has 100 buildings from about 1920 to 1960: Colonial Revival, Craftsman and early ranches. That same year, This Old House named Greencastle one of the fifteen best old-house neighborhoods in the Midwest, the only Indiana town on the list.
Updating a period house without erasing it
A house from any of those eras usually has good bones and tired systems. The work is almost always the same list: wiring and plumbing past their service life, little or no insulation, small closed rooms, and a kitchen and bath from a remodel that aged badly. The design problem is fixing all of that while keeping the trim, window proportions and rooflines that make the street look the way it does.
- Do the systems at once. Wiring, plumbing and insulation go in together while the walls are open, so nothing gets opened twice. How a whole-home renovation runs.
- Draw additions to match. Siding reveal, roof pitch and trim profile decide whether an addition looks original or bolted on. More on additions.
- Plan for staying. A main-floor bedroom and a curbless shower can keep a two-story house livable for decades. Our forever-home standard.
Building out in Putnam County
Outside town the county opens up: flat in the north, rolling and wooded through the middle and southwest, with Big Walnut Creek running through it. There are nine covered bridges, all added to the National Register in 2023, and Heritage Lake, a private 316-acre lake in the northeast corner. Wooded parcels and lake lots are the kind of site we like. They need the grade, the septic and the access for a concrete truck worked out before anyone draws a house. How a Northwood custom home gets built.
Permits
City or county, sorted before design.
Greencastle runs its own planning and zoning office, which covers the city plus a two-mile fringe around it. There you need an Improvement Location Permit before a building permit. Outside that line, and in towns like Cloverdale, Bainbridge, Roachdale and Russellville, the Putnam County Building Department handles it, and starting work before the permit is issued doubles the fee.
We confirm which office has your address during pre-construction and handle the filing, so none of that lands on you.
A closed floor plan, opened up.
Greencastle questions
What people here ask first.
Yes. A National Register listing recognizes a district's history. Inside the house you have the same freedom as anywhere else, and most of what we do in older homes happens inside the walls.
For exterior changes, we check what applies to your address before design starts, and we draw additions to match the house either way.
Lake lots are some of our favorite work. Sloped, wooded sites near water need drainage, foundation and access decisions made early, and we walk the lot before we draw anything. Walking a lot before you buy it is free.
Private lake communities often have their own architectural rules on top of the county's. We work those into the plan from the start. See how we handle lake and ravine lots in Parke County.
If you love the house, the street and the walk to the square, renovating usually wins, and an old Greencastle house is worth the effort. If the house is simply the wrong shape for your family, building on land in the county can cost less than fighting it.
We do both, so you'll get a straight answer rather than a sales pitch for one or the other.
Start a project
Old house or open ground?
Tell us the address and what you have in mind. We reply within three hours on a weekday.