The Ball Family Homes

While it’s fun to look at historic black and white images of the five Ball brothers’ homes, it’s also great to see them in glorious color. Albany, Indiana artist Alan Patrick made sure that we will always have that color record of the homes. In 1996, Patrick received a commission from Alltrista (now Jarden Home Brands) to create paintings of the homes. At first, he considered making one painting that would be a collage of all five houses. After consideration and study, however, he decided to make a separate painting of each house. He photographed the four standing houses—the Frank C. Ball home was destroyed by fire in 1967—in the early spring, and went to work in his studio.

It was easy for Patrick to determine the colors of the remaining homes but not so easy to duplicate those of the Frank C. Ball home. Patrick “remembered” that the roof was red, but photographs provided to him by Ball’s grandson, Frank Bracken, indicated that it was green. Patrick did take some license with the paintings. Although the photographs were taken in the spring, Patrick placed the Lucius L. Ball home in a fall setting. In addition, he added an automobile, featured in an historic photograph of the Frank C. Ball home, in the painting of that house.

Upon completion, the paintings premiered at Minnetrista then were hung in the boardroom at Alltrista. When Jarden Home Brands moved their corporate offices from downtown Muncie to Daleville, the paintings were donated to the Minnetrista Heritage Collection. After Patrick learned that Jarden had given the paintings to Minnetrista, he donated his preliminary drawings. Together, the paintings and the drawings tell the story of the houses and the process of capturing them on canvas.