Crawfordsville, IN

by Carwyn Williams
(Crawfordsville, IN USA)

A great small town; the Montomgery county seat and home to Wabash College, a liberal arts college established in 1832. Lots of interesting folks, close to West Lafayette (Purdue University), and Indianapolis; the usual American shopping including Walmart and Applebee's, but also some interesting local places. This town used to be called "the Athens of Indiana" and has a great art/literature history, including a beautiful museum in the study of Lew Wallace, author or Ben Hur and civil war general, later ambassador to Turkey. Also, the home of the man who nominated Lincoln for President is a museum. There are summer Sunday concerts in the park and lots of free concerts and lectures at the College. Many folks quilt and paint and there are multiple shows each year.

The museums and college have websites -- check them out!

People are friendly, accepting of strangers. My neighbors don't even lock their front doors! For not much more than $100K you can get a lovely old Victorian home with mature trees. There are state parks nearby, a canoe stream through town, lots of local farmers markets, a new winery, and two health food stores.

So, if you think you could live away from the coast where there's a verdant spring, warm porch-swing summer, colorful fall and white Christmas you might really want to check out the low cost of living. We have a $135K Victorian on which we pay less than $500/yr property tax! The state income tax rate is less than 4% and licensing your car is pretty inexpensive too!

I'm writing because I am looking for interesting folks to spend my retirement with and hope you'll join me in Crawfordsville!