Reporting done by Mireya Alemán

Heading east on the Lincoln Highway in Goshen, tucked behind a small plot of trees, sits a wooden cabin. Once you travel up the gravel driveway, an attached garage protrudes out from the left side of the house.

The power tools and personal protective gear inside seem to be those of a blue-collar man. After browsing the garage further, the kiln, glazed mugs and throwing wheel reveal a different use. This is the home of Trevor Daugherty, a ceramic artist, and the owner and co-publisher of the magazine Edible Michiana.

In fact, the house is the work of many local artists. The home was built in the late 1960s by the late Marvin Bartel, professor emeritus of art at Goshen College.

Bartel enlisted the help of local carpenters, contractors. and GC students.

“He engaged his classes in a lot of the building process,” Daugherty said. “John Blosser, who was another Goshen College professor, was in Marvin’s first class at Goshen. He was here when the house was built and has some great memories of helping to build this home as a student.”

Visiting the Bartel home was something his students never forgot.

Tiffany Wyse-Fisher, assistant professor of art and former student of Bartel, recounts her first visit to the home.

“I remember thinking it was so cool, even then. I could tell that he was really proud of it and what he had accomplished when he had put it together. It was something that we all really admired and appreciated,” she said.

Bartel would regularly have students visit for class field trips, and host students for the holidays. Daugherty believed he did this for two reasons:

“One, that it would just be a welcoming place, particularly for international students who didn’t have a place to go for Christmas or Thanksgiving. But also, it was an example of how creativity as an artist can live out in a functional day-to-day space.”

Today, Wyse-Fisher and Daugherty have kept with tradition. Since starting her position, Wyse-Fisher has regularly taken her students on field trips to local ceramic studios.

“[Trevor] invited us. I was really glad he did because it is such a cool space for ceramic students to see. And [Trevor] said, ‘This is why Marvin and Dolores trusted [the house] to me and Brea.’ Like this idea that the legacy would live on,” she said.

The frame and wood interior of the house is made of recycled wood beams — some from a barn on a former gladiolus farm, and others from trees that had been clear-cut during the building process.

Bartel used his ceramic skills in areas of the home as well.

“The tile in the house, the sinks and the backsplashes, Marvin made out of clay either at the college or in other local studios,” Daugherty said.

Making functional upgrades to the home while maintaining Bartel’s craftsmanship has been a “delicate balance.”

“We have kind of updated all of the things that you can’t see. You know, plumbing and heating type of stuff that isn’t as obvious, but are the things that keep a home healthy,” Daugherty said.

When building the home, Bartel was determined to reuse any materials he could. The fireplace was made out of a propane tank from the GC Physical Plant that he cut in half and welded together.

Ryan Snider, a senior art major, visited Daugherty’s home back in March, and was “enthralled” by how many ceramic details it contained.

“He made the sinks and the shower tile, the floors, the lightswitch [plates] and literally the mailbox. At one point there was a handmade toilet in there. It was super incredible and inspiring because you don’t have to be confined to purchasing everything. You can literally just make it.”

The house isn’t just a field trip stop for GC students, it is also a stop on the Michiana Pottery tour, a regional arts tour highlighting the work of potters in and around Northern Indiana and Southern Michigan.

Daugherty said, “It’s just a great way to invite people to come and see the space. It’s not unusual for someone to show up and say, ‘When I was in [Mennonite Youth Fellowship] at 8th Street Mennonite Church, I would come here to Marvin and Dolores’s house.’ And, ‘I have fond memories of being in the living room playing games.’ It’s an opportunity for us to not only showcase our work, but invite people who have fond memories of this place to come back.”