The County Line
Beau Wilfong sent me an email earlier this week with the picture of Sesquicentennial Oak, a 150-year-old, 110-foot-tall tree that was transplanted to Keystone Square Shopping Center 50 years ago this month.
Wilfong, owner of Wilfong Land Company, is the son of longtime county resident and real estate developer Ralph Wilfong. And, as Beau reminded me, his father’s real breakthrough on the local scene came 50 years ago.
The transplanting of the giant tree was something of a publicity stunt.
Ralph Wilfong had been doing residential development for 20 years, but in 1971 he went into commercial development with Carmel’s first shopping center, now named Merchants Square. The tree-moving drew attention to the new project and to the area with a photo in the statewide news media.
Photo provided
Ralph was a hands-on developer who carved out the path for Carmel Drive between Keystone and Range Line Road, driving an earth-mover through a former cornfield.
Ralph along with partners Milton Fineberg and Tom Barnes developed the shopping center through the early and mid-1970s.
Although Ralph’s name may not be familiar to newer residents, he made an indelible imprint in the Carmel and Westfield communities. He put together several farms which were developed into Village Farms and new sections of Mount Carmel subdivisions.
Always interested in horse racing, Ralph attempted to build a parimutuel racetrack where Village Plaza shopping center is now located. That project did not succeed when county voters turned down the plan in a referendum.
But, the always colorful, sometimes controversial developer continued promoting harness racing in Indiana virtually until he died in 1997.
Today, Ralph is still remembered in the local real estate and horse racing communities, and memorialized in Carmel’s Founders Park with the impressive Wilfong Pavilion.