History

The Original Company is located in The Historic Brevoort House 552 Busseron St. Vincennes, IN.

          The Historical Brevoort House dates back to 1882. Designed by John H. Stem, Bought by William Breevort 1892, Bought by Saundra & Mark Lange 1992, and Refurbished for The Original Company, Inc. The entrance hall includes the piano of Maude Brevoort. The staircase was built in Indianapolis and shipped to Vincennes all the way to the White River. The file cabinet and Mission chairs were used in the farm operation. All the elaborate Eastlake style stained woodwork and mantle in the house are original and were not refinished - just cleaned. The sitting room features three sets of pocket doors and intricate woodwork. The conference room has the Brevoort's dining room table. Original lincrusta is located on either side of the fireplace. The fruit room was the bedroom of John Brevoort and contained a large safe. Almost all interior walls are solid brick, as are all exterior walls. Brick has been left exposed in the new entrance and bathroom - both designed for handicapped accessibility. Virtually all wall plaster is original. Because of extensive water damage and special wiring requirements of the radio stations, ceilings have been replaced. The wide bead board in the kitchen is original and the pantry is intact. All floors are constructed with one inch thick plank, two inches of concrete and another one inch plank on top. The entrance to the basement includes exposed floor and original wallpaper on the ceiling

          The upstairs front room was a bedroom and had only one coat of paint on the walls when the Langes' purchased the structure. The small closet still has its original hangers. The only room that was divided during the refurbishing was another bedroom. Entrance to the divided section was constructed by remocing a wall at the end of a shorthallway and entering the back of the room throught its former closet. Broadcast studio. It's closet will house the computer servers and telephone system. An extensive wiring trough system was built into the floor to channel miles of wire throughout the building. It can be seen in the closet. A window was cut between the back two upstairs rooms forvisual communication between the news and air staff of news/talk programmed WAOV radio that will be located in this area of the house. A bathroom and engineering room complete the second floor.

         The third floor is an unfinished attic. Virtually all HVAC and electrical service is located in knee walls so the area can be used in the future. THe house was occupied by only bugs and bats from 1988 until refurbishing began in earnest Septmber of 1997. At one time there were thousands of bats living in each room of the structure.

         A new entrance to the house was cut from a window. A second structure was constructed adjacent to the house. It is designed to resemble a summer kitchen and will house more staff of The Original Company, Inc. A 120 foot tower and satellite dish "farm" are required for the operation of the radio stations. The complex has an electrical generator for backup power. A chimney was removed from the back of the building because it was structurally unsound. It's bricks were used to restore the other chimneys that were capped and cut down sometime in the 1970's.

         The Brevoort House is now the home of WZDM 92.1 FM, WAOV 1450 AM, and WUZR 105.7 FM studios. It  also houses the corporate operations of The Original Company, Inc. and Old Northwest Broadcasting Corporation, Inc. The Original Company, Inc. manages and operates TOC Media, an advertising and marketing firm eager to handle creative marketing ideas.

Thank you for your interest in the historic Brevoort House restoration.

- Mark and Saundra Lange