A Historic Move
In the first half of the 20th century, more than 100 stone mills operated in the limestone belt that runs through Owen, Monroe, and Lawrence counties. Of the small number that remain, some are operational, while others stand unused. The old Fluck Cut Stone building, located in northwestern Clear Creek Township, was purchased and reopened by TexaCon Cut Stone.
12-09-1930
12-16-1930
12-23-1930
This is the original location of the Fluck Cut Stone Company Mill in Chicago, Illinois, before the mill was dismantled and rebuilt in Monroe County, Indiana, in 1930.
In the Beginning...
Arthur James Fluck was born about 1895 and grew up in Chicago. The 1920 and 1930 Chicago censuses list his occupation as a “cut stone contractor” and “independent stone manufacturer.” The same censuses show that his older brother, Hugh, born in 1893, was a stone cutter. Moreover, Arthur and Hugh were following the trade of their father, Hugh William Fluck, who was born in England in 1860. He emigrated to the U.S., arriving in New York in 1881. He married Anna Wiley in Chicago in 1887 and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1892. The Chicago censuses for 1900, 1910, and 1920 list him as a stone cutter and contractor. Hugh William Fluck died in Chicago on 24 July 1928. His death record gives his occupation as “Fluck Cut Stone.” From this, we can surmise that the company was established under his direction.
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In 1930, two years after their father’s death, Arthur and Hugh shifted the Fluck Cut Stone operation to Monroe County, Indiana. From the same newspaper item that described the new mill, we learn that Arthur Fluck’s first residence in Bloomington was “the house of Mr. and Mrs. William Graham on north Washington street.” (This house, at 430 North Washington, now serves as the Showers Inn.) Arthur Fluck and his wife, Janet (“Nettie”), later moved to 1125 Atwater and then lived for a time in the Graham Hotel at 205 North College.
These photos show the construction of the Fluck Cut Stone Mill in Monroe County as it was being moved from its location in Chicago.
About 1955, they moved to a limestone ranch house at 2400
Lavern Drive in Matlock Heights, a new neighborhood established
in northwest Bloomington in the 1950s. Arthur and Nettie had
one son, Arthur, Jr., who eventually entered the family business.
Arthur James Fluck died on 20 January 1957, age 61, and is buried
at Rose Hill Cemetery.
When Arthur Fluck’s brother, Hugh, and his wife, Elsie, first came
to Bloomington, they lived in an apartment at 111 East Tenth
Street, a few blocks away from Arthur and Nettie’s Washington Street address. The apartment house, built around 1928, was a large one containing two flats upstairs and two downstairs. It was called the “Angelika Apartments,” presumably after Angelika Poolitsan, who lived next door (and who probably owned both properties). She was the widow of George Poolitsan, owner of the Greek Candy Co. on the east side of the downtown square; their sons became the owners of the Gables restaurant. Hugh and Elsie remained at 111 East Tenth Street for many years, then lived briefly in an apartment at 1700 North Walnut before moving to 3105 Carnaby Street in southeast Bloomington in 1977. Hugh died on 26 December 1987, age 94, and was interred in Valhalla Mausoleum.
This is an early 1930 view of the Fluck Cut Stone Company.