Couple buys birthplace of Broadway legend Cole Porter

PERU, Ind. (AP) — A Peru couple has purchased the birthplace of famous Broadway composer Cole Porter and will continue to run it as an inn after the property went up for sale last year.

Jill and Marlin Ash, who own a consignment shop in Peru and a hog farm in Miami County, bought the house located at 19 S. Huntington St. in November for $110,000 from Ole Olsen Memorial Theatre, a nonprofit performance group.

The purchase marks the most recent chapter of the historic property that at one time was used as a meth lab.

Porter, who became famous for his cosmopolitan lifestyle and compositions such as "I've Got You Under My Skin" and the musical "Kiss Me Kate," was born in Peru in 1891 and wrote some of his first songs inside the house.