DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Somewhere in Marion County, there stands a house that has seen more than most houses are built to handle. The Brooks House went up in 1872, Victorian style, and they did not spare the details — long galleries stretching out to catch the breeze, a bay window, four gables looking out over the world like four sets of watchful eyes.
It was a handsome thing, and for a while it served as a hotel, which meant it welcomed strangers. That, as it turns out, would make all the difference. Now most hotels accumulate stories quietly.
The Brooks House accumulated one story that would follow it forever. In 1877, a guest by the name of Diamond Bessie Moore was killed — west of town, at a picnic. A picnic.
The kind of outing that ought to end with nothing more dramatic than a long afternoon nap. But Diamond Bessie Moore did not come back from that one. A fellow guest named Abe Rothchild was cited for her murder.
What followed was the kind of trial that newspapers dream about — sensational, they called it, and that word earned its keep. When it was all over, Abe Rothchild was freed. The story didn't end there, though.
It grew. It spread. It became the subject of a drama, which means somebody looked at what happened in and around that Victorian house with its four gables and its long galleries, and decided the whole thing was too extraordinary to let fade quietly.
They were right. Some buildings just hold their history different than others. The Brooks House holds its close.
What the marker says
Built 1872 in Victorian style, with long galleries, bay window, 4 gables. Then a hotel, it became famous when guest "Diamond Bessie" Moore was killed west of town at a picnic in 1877. Fellow guest Abe Rothchild, cited for murder, was freed after sensational trial-- later subject of a drama.