Talk:John L. Nichols House

A fact from John L. Nichols House appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 26 June 2011 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that the John L. Nichols House was the home of the first architect to practice in Bloomington, Indiana?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2011/June.

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While this artcile accurately relates information from existing sources, those sources are inaccurate. For example, it asserts that Nichols built 608 structures in 1908, and there is a source that says that, but the source is misreading a newspaper article theat discussed all contstruction in Bloomington for 1908. Nichols, being the architect most active in Bloomington at the time relays information compiled from the local building industry. Specific comments are made about his work also, but not all of the 608 projects are his.

Another poorly documented assertion is that J. L. Nichols designed the Batman House. The design of the house occurred before Nichols returned to Bloomington from ten years in Denver, San Francisco abd other western cities. Construction also began before he returned to Bloomington in August 1895. There is no primary source documentation for an attribution to J. L. Nichols, or anyone else, although the house is consistent with the work of Nichols father, Hiram J. Nichols.

The house began to be credited to Nichols in the 1970's when a student working on a folklore project interviewed an unnamed woman working in an antique shop in the Batman Mansion. This individuaul is the source of the attribution to J. L. Nichols. No effort was made to ascertain the accuracy or origin of her attribution. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Wicoulte (talk • contribs) 18:03, 24 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]