Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
“Rosenberger Building is a historic commercial building located at Colfax, Indiana. It was built about 1850, and is a two-story, three-bay, rectangular brick building.”
Wikipedia article Rosenberger Building, CC BY-SA 4.0.
One of 12 National Register listings published here for Clinton County · listed in 1984 · category: Building.
Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service
The chapter on Perry Township in Combination Atlas Map of Clinton County, Indiana, published 1878 names Colfax. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.
About 1870, the L., C. & S. W. Railroad was completed, passing direetly through Colfax. business of every kind. From that day until the present it has grown very rapidly. The appearance of her business houses, her splendid sehool building, churches, and many comfortable dwellings all indieate an industrious, intelligent, enterprising class of citizens.
Passage source: Combination Atlas Map of Clinton County, Indiana, published 1878.
The Indianapolis, Cincinnati & Lafayette Railroad, at first called the Indianapolis Railroad, was located in the year 1849, and finished about the year 1852, when Mr. Strowd laid out a town, to which he gave the cognomen Midway, which, after a while, grew into our present Colfax. In time, the tastes of the people became so cultivated as to render the appearance of the old log school house odious, and they erected, on the same location, a frame school house, to which the young, of course, were proud to go. This house, however, at last, grew too small, and an old church was appropriated to the use of school. Here gathered the motley crowd of children into an unhandy and uncomfortable room, to receive instruction from either the primary or principal teacher.
Passage source: Combination Atlas Map of Clinton County, Indiana, published 1878.
Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.
Read the whole chapter on Perry Township - 1,406 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Colfax, the town this property stands in, in 15 storm reports between 1998 and 2025: 10 thunderstorm wind, 3 hail, 1 flash flood, 1 tornado. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 2023 | Tornado (EF2) | Colfax | $700,000 | Continuation of the tornado that first impacted Montgomery and Boone Counties (as an EF1 and EF0, respectively). The tornado continued to track to the northeast, parallel to and roughly 0.8 miles southeast of West Manson Colfax Road, while intensifying. Near the intersection of County Roads 700 South and 750 West a homestead ascertained EF1-intensity damage, with 2 outbuildings on cinder blocks completely destroyed, the collapse of chimney and significant roof damage.||The tornado then reached peak intensity as an EF2 with peak winds of 120 mph, for about 0.5 miles prior to crossing US Highway 52 at the intersection with County Road 650 South. Through this most-intense segment, a large homestead lost large sections of roof structure, with a garage's brick walls blown out, while a large and poorly-anchored barn was destroyed; with a collapse of a nearby communications tower. EF1-intensity damage continued for another 1.6 miles towards Interstate Route 65, as a few barns were completely destroyed across this rural portion of southwestern Clinton County.||The tornado caused minimal EF0-intensity damage for the following 2 miles, including where it crossed Interstate Route 65, while occasionally dropping debris the vortex had picked up earlier in its path. The circulation restrengthened to EF1 intensity for its final 1.7 miles, causing significant damage just before ending about 3 miles southwest of Frankfort: hardwood trees were downed at County Road 400 South; before extensive damage near County Road 300 South which included the destruction of several barns/farm outbuildings among corresponding tree damage, including a concrete tower and a silo (at separate buildings) both leaning southwest, while another farm outbuilding's roof panels were wrapped around trees. |
| August 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Colfax | $30,000 | WLFI reported numerous trees and power lines down in Colfax due to damaging thunderstorm wind gusts. Some of the trees were large white oaks. Many large sugar maple limbs were down too. Hail accompanied the wind resulting in some siding and roofing damage. No information on the size of the hail. |
| March 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Colfax | $20,000 | Top edge of brick facade on the front of a building extending above the roof line was damaged by thunderstorm wind gusts. |
| July 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Colfax | $20,000 | Thunderstorm winds downed power lines at County Roads 700 West and 380 South. |
| March 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Colfax | $10,000 | Thunderstorm wind gusts downed 9 power poles along County Road 750 West. |
| June 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Colfax | $5,000 | A barn was destroyed in this location due to damaging thunderstorm wind gusts. |
| June 2023 | Hail | Colfax | - | Thunderstorm hail continued into southeastern Clinton County, as large as softballs in Kirklin. |
| June 2023 | Hail | Colfax | - | Thunderstorm hail over southwestern Clinton County, with hail as large as 1.50 inches east of Coalfax. |
| November 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Colfax | - | An estimated 65 mph thunderstorm wind gust was observed in this location. |
| April 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Colfax | - | A thunderstorm wind gust, estimated at 60 mph, was reported from this location. |
| June 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Colfax | - | Trees were knocked down due to damaging thunderstorm winds. |
| June 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Colfax | - | Trees were reported down by a trained spotter due to severe damaging thunderstorm winds. |
| June 2007 | Hail | Colfax | - | no account filed |
| August 2002 | Flash Flood | Colfax | - | no account filed |
| November 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Colfax | - | no account filed |
No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.
Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.
| Photograph | Property | Distance | Listed |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Colfax Carnegie Library | 0.3 miles | 1994 |
| National Archives record | The nomination case file for reference 84001004 in Record Group 79. |
| Wikipedia article | Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA. |
| Clinton County | All 12 listed properties in this county. |
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