L IBRAHY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 Of ILLINOIS 
 
 977 2 
 
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 IlilMIS HfSTORICAL SURVEY 
 
INDIANA 
 
 HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 PUBLICATIONS 
 
 VOLUME 11 
 NUMBEE 3 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2012 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
 http://archive.org/details/earlyarchitectsb113burn 
 
Cathedral of St. Francis Xavier, begun in 1825 
 Vincennes 
 
EARLY ARCHITECTS AND 
 BUILDERS OF|INDIANA 
 
 By 
 LEE BURNS 
 
 INDIANAPOLIS 
 
 INDIANA HISTOEICAL SOCIETY 
 
 1935 
 
EARLY ARCHITECTS AND BUILDERS OF INDIANA 
 
 With an Account of Some of Their 
 More Important Work 
 
 When the territory west of the Allegheny Mountains 
 was being developed, during the first half of the nine- 
 teenth century, it was but natural for carpenters and builders 
 in the new settlements to use much the same types of design 
 and methods of construction as had been used in the eastern 
 states from which most of them had come. 
 
 The architectural forms with which they were familiar 
 were those that had been used when these states were English 
 colonies, and when the designs of buildings in America were 
 greatly influenced by contemporary work in England, an 
 influence that continued long after the War of Independence. 
 
 There were not many architects in America at that time 
 whose practice consisted of the preparation of plans and speci- 
 fications for work to be executed by builders. 1 It is certain 
 that there were none in Indiana. The general adoption 
 throughout the country of the proportions and use of orna- 
 ment characteristic of the Georgian period or of the succeed- 
 ing Greek Revival, modified on occasion to suit American 
 tastes and requirements, was brought about not so much by the 
 occasional visits made back and forth by architects of England 
 and America as by general use of measured drawings in the 
 many excellent books published for architects and builders. 2 
 
 *In the preface to his Practice of Architecture, published in Boston in 
 1833, Asher Benjamin said: "The time has been, within my own recollec- 
 tion, when New England did not contain a single professed architect. The 
 first individual who laid claim to that character was Charles Bui finch, 
 Esquire, of this city; to whose classical taste we are indebted for many 
 fine buildings." 
 
 Construction records for some of the more important buildings in the 
 states along the Atlantic coast show that bricklayers, carpenters, and super- 
 visors were brought from England. No doubt they had some influence on 
 design as well as workmanship and building methods. See Domestic Colo- 
 nial Architecture of Tidewater Virginia, by Thomas T. Waterman and 
 John A. Barrows (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1932). 
 
 (179) 
 
180 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 Among these were volumes prepared by such English au- 
 thorities as Isaac Ware, James Gibbs, Sir William Chambers, 
 Robert Adam, Peter Nicholson, and others, together with a 
 number of very complete builders' handbooks such as those by 
 Batty Langley, William Pain, or Asher Benjamin of Massa- 
 chusetts. These books contained many engraved plates illus- 
 trating the accepted details and proportions for work of these 
 periods. 3 With the guidance of such books master builders 
 prepared plans for proposed buildings and entered into 
 contracts for their construction. 
 
 It might be thought a far cry from the studied considera- 
 tion of form and symmetrical composition shown in the im- 
 portant architectural work of England following the Renais- 
 sance to the simple requirements of early buildings in the 
 Middle West. However, these books had a powerful influ- 
 ence, and their directions and measured drawings were 
 generally followed as far as possible. 
 
 Construction problems were comparatively simple. Build- 
 ings were of frame or masonry, small in size, seldom over three 
 
 3 Among the books much used were : The Builder s Companion, by Wil- 
 liam Pain, Architect & Joiner, first edition, London, 1762. "All the prin- 
 cipal rules of architecture from the plan to the ornamental finish." Illus- 
 trated by 102 copperplates. 
 
 Country Builders' mid Workmen's Treasury of Design, by Batty Lang- 
 ley. Published in England in 1740. 
 
 The Builder's Jewel, by Batty Langley, published in England. One 
 edition, 1805, a small book to fit the pocket, contained hundreds of engrav- 
 ings showing many classic details. In the preface to the original edition 
 (London, 1746), Thomas Langley said that he had compiled a work of use- 
 ful rules and preparations by which a workman could renew his memory, 
 and an apprentice by assiduous application in his leisure hours make him- 
 self a master builder. 
 
 Asher Benjamin of Massachusetts, who attached to his name the title 
 of "Architect and carpenter," published between the years 1806 and 1833 
 five volumes on design and construction each of which ran into several 
 editions. They were filled with engraved plates of details, with an oc- 
 casional plan and elevation for country or town houses, churches, court- 
 houses, etc., and they had a very definite influence on American work. 
 
 Another widely used book, published in America, was Civil Architecture, 
 by Edward Shaw. The third edition (Boston, 1840) contained 100 copper- 
 plate engravings. 
 
EARLY ARCHITECTS AND BUILDERS 181 
 
 stories in height, and the installation of any mechanical equip- 
 ment, now regarded as necessary, such as for plumbing, light- 
 ing, or central heating, was not often required. 
 
 Most of the carpenters and builders of those days were well 
 trained. They had served apprenticeships with older builders, 
 and were expert in various forms of woodworking. As there 
 were but few woodworking mills where trim could be had 
 ready for erection, the moldings, doors, blinds, cabinets, stairs, 
 and other such work were made in their own shops. This gave 
 them a more accurate knowledge of design and workmanship 
 than is acquired by men of today who have only to put such 
 material in place when it comes from a mill. For such work 
 they used many devices, such as special planes for making 
 moldings, that are unknown in a modern tool chest. 4 
 
 While the work of these builders was usually sound in con- 
 struction, their ability to adapt the plans and details in the 
 books on design depended, as did that of their fellow crafts- 
 men, the cabinetmakers, on their sense of scale and proportion. 
 For the rhythmic beauty of architecture as of music cannot be 
 produced equally well by all performers, even though they at- 
 tempt to follow the same score. At times the details were 
 heavy and clumsy, but some of this work was notable for its 
 delicacy and restraint. 
 
 In any community the buildings had a pleasing unity, and 
 there was a relationship between those in different communi- 
 ties, though they were as far apart as New England and the 
 Carolinas, or Virginia and Indiana. And yet, oddly enough, 
 our towns of a century ago had a certain individual quality. It 
 was a considerable journey from one to another, and so, al- 
 though they were built in much the same style and tradition, a 
 local interpretation and character was developed, quite different 
 from the monotonous variety of the manner of today. 
 
 The general use of Georgian architecture, that had been 
 inspired by the Italian Renaissance, was followed in England 
 and America by a revival of interest in Greek forms of art and 
 architecture, as men came to have a new knowledge of their 
 
 4 Mr. Ralph Reeder of Indianapolis has a chest of these old tools that 
 were used in Madison and Vernon. 
 
182 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 beauty and dignity. 5 At times the unrestrained enthusiasm of 
 those who admired the results achieved by adapting the form 
 of a Greek temple for public buildings led to unfortunate ex- 
 amples of residence work. It is difficult to believe that those 
 artists who created the Parthenon would have been willing to 
 live in such a building. 
 
 Yet both of these styles had the same classic source. When 
 architects and builders began to use Greek precedents with 
 greater freedom as to plan, detail, and proportion, many stately 
 homes were built that are regarded today as examples of good 
 design. From the influence of both the Georgian period and 
 the Greek Revival, an American tradition in architecture was 
 developed that is today a most valuable heritage. 
 
 We should remember that good architecture has never con- 
 sisted of making copies of earlier work. It is produced, rather, 
 by a creative evolution that interprets changing needs and 
 ideals, combining, with a sense for scale and proportion, many 
 different elements, both new and old, both practical and 
 decorative, into a harmonious composition. 
 
 Much of the glory that was Greece was used to produce the 
 grandeur that was Rome, but it was modified and added to in 
 many ways. And when the Renaissance brought to the coun- 
 tries of Europe a new enthusiasm for the symmetry and bal- 
 ance of classic design, each adapted and developed these ideas 
 in a different way, retaining and absorbing such of their old 
 forms and methods as they found desirable. By this method 
 they created a living architecture that was in part their very 
 own. 
 
 There was also much difference between the solid classic 
 compositions of Inigo Jones or Christopher Wren and the 
 light and delicate proportions of the Adam style that was com- 
 ing in vogue at the time of the American Revolution. Yet 
 buildings representing these different periods stand side by 
 side in perfect harmony. 
 
 In Georgian homes along the Atlantic seaboard, where 
 prosperous merchants and planters sent ships to traverse the 
 
 5 In his preface to the Practical House Carpenter, published in 1830, 
 Mr. Benjamin said: "Since my last publication, the Roman school of archi- 
 tecture has been entirely changed for the Grecian." 
 
EARLY ARCHITECTS AND BUILDERS 183 
 
 seven seas, were to be found objects of art brought from all 
 parts of the world. Wallpapers from France, Chippendale fur- 
 niture inspired by Chinese motives, rugs from Persia — all 
 could be made to blend with the interior architecture of gra- 
 cious and harmonious rooms. For many of these homes were 
 owned by cultured people who studied and understood the use 
 of beautiful things. Their furniture and silverware, some of 
 it imported, some made by domestic cabinetmakers and silver- 
 smiths, is regarded today as marking a high point in artistic 
 craftsmanship and is eagerly sought by collectors. 
 
 From those older communities that had well-established 
 habits of building and furnishing, came many of the first set- 
 tlers to our middle western country. The first settlement in 
 Indiana had been at Vincennes, where the French established 
 a trading post, maintained under French and English rule for 
 nearly half a century before this territory became a possession 
 of the United States. Most of the houses in the old French 
 town were one story in height with a central hall, many of them 
 with wide piazzas across both front and back, covered by un- 
 broken slopes of the main roof. They were built of hewed 
 logs, that usually stood upright, with the space between filled 
 with clay or mortar. Some were covered with stucco, and 
 whitewashed with lime made from mussel shells that were 
 gathered along the banks of the Wabash. 
 
 The new settlers who came from the eastern states after 
 the close of the War of the Revolution brought a different 
 building tradition. When, in 1801, young William Henry 
 Harrison went to Vincennes as governor of Indiana Territory, 
 he was received at a home that had just been completed for 
 Colonel Vigo. This was a two-story frame house of the early 
 American type, painted white, with green shutters. In the 
 principal rooms were floors made of alternate blocks of ash 
 and walnut, and other features that made it quite the most 
 impressive residence in the town. 
 
 Governor Harrison at once bought a farm adjoining the 
 town and began preparations for building a home for himself. 
 For the making of the brick he exchanged four hundred acres 
 of land, valued at one thousand dollars. The house, which is 
 still standing, is a creditable interpretation of Georgian archi- 
 
184 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 tecture. There is no record of an architect having been 
 employed. 
 
 At that time, as has often been noted, some study and un- 
 derstanding of architecture was considered a desirable part of 
 the education of a gentleman. Washington had much to do 
 with the development of Mount Vernon. Jefferson, after 
 years of study, designed many important buildings that have 
 had a profound influence on our architectural history. 
 
 It is probable that Harrison, who was familiar with many 
 of the fine homes in his native Virginia, worked with the 
 builders on the plans, and selected the elevations and details 
 that were to be adapted for his home from some of the books 
 on the subject. He had spent his boyhood at "Berkeley" in the 
 tidewater country, and many of the notable houses in that part 
 of the Old Dominion belonged to his friends and members of 
 his family. 
 
 An interesting feature of the house at Vincennes is an el- 
 liptical bay, a characteristic part of many of the fashionable 
 houses of the time. The stairway is graceful and unusual in 
 its arrangement. On some of the mantels the decorative pat- 
 terns were made by nicks and carvings produced with a gouge 
 or chisel. 
 
 This was in its day not only the finest homestead in the 
 Indiana Territory, but, as the home of the governor, it became 
 the social and political center of that vast domain. Because of 
 its historic associations, and also as an important record of the 
 architectural tendency of its time, the house and grounds are 
 deserving of adequate and intelligent restoration. 
 
 A house of equal appeal, as to both architectural merit and 
 romantic associations, is the one built by Isaac White, another 
 young native of Virginia, who came to Vincennes in the year 
 1800. A year or so later he married Sallie Leech, daughter of 
 Judge George Leech of the Quarter Sessions and Common 
 Pleas courts. 
 
 They became warm friends of Governor Harrison, who ap- 
 pointed White agent of the United States at the salt springs in 
 the Illinois country. Within a few years White acquired a 
 private interest in the salt works, an important business which 
 
EARLY ARCHITECTS AND BUILDERS 185 
 
 he managed with ability, and from which he acquired consider- 
 able wealth. 
 
 Their house, "White Hall," built on a farm several miles 
 from the town, was completed in the year 1811. While work 
 on the house was under way General Harrison began prepara- 
 tions for his campaign against Tecumseh. Isaac White was 
 an officer in the militia, but as his own command was not 
 chosen for the campaign he enlisted in the battalion com- 
 manded by Colonel Daveiss. 6 At the enlistment these two 
 friends exchanged swords. Both were killed at the Battle of 
 Tippecanoe and they were buried side by side under an oak 
 tree on the battlefield. 7 
 
 And so Isaac White did not see the completion of the dis- 
 tinctive home to which he must have devoted much time and 
 thought. White Hall is still standing, though badly in need of 
 restoration. While a frame addition at one end is not in the 
 same scale or spirit, the original one-story brick house has 
 fortunately remained unchanged for over a century. 
 
 The plan is most unusual. The farm was intended to be a 
 complete and self-contained organization, with a house for the 
 owner, his family, and his guests, and dependent buildings for 
 slaves and other servants. The main building, one story in 
 height, was built around a brick-paved court, with long porches 
 at the entrance side, and also on the court, that were covered 
 by the main roof. The skillful arrangement made it possible 
 for every room to be entered from one of the porches or from 
 the central hall. 
 
 The exterior, of brick laid in Flemish bond, the entrance 
 door and side lights, and the long, low, hip roof have some of 
 the character of the colonial architecture of many farmhouses 
 in Virginia. Yet it is unbalanced in plan. The entrance hall 
 is off center and the porch does not extend equally across the 
 
 6 Otto A. Rothert, in an article on "The Grave of Joseph Hamilton 
 Daveiss," in the Filson Club History Quarterly, Vol. 5, pp. 191 ff., calls 
 attention to the almost universal misspelling of the name as "Daviess." 
 Daveiss' signature appears many times in his pamphlet, View of the Presi- 
 dent's Conduct Concerning the Conspiracy of 1806 (Frankfort, Ky., 1807). 
 
 7 White, George Fauntleroy, Sketch of the Life of Colonel Isaac White 
 . . . (Gibson Bros., Printers, Washington, 1889). 
 
186 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 front, but the roof brings all of these elements into a pleasing 
 composition. 
 
 The will of Isaac White, made in May, 1811, and the rec- 
 ords of his executors, contain considerable information in re- 
 gard to the home, its furnishing, and its occupants. Bills of 
 material include ash plank to be tongued and grooved for the 
 finished floors, and poplar plank to be worked for the interior 
 trim. Window glass, and cut and hammered nails and other 
 hardware came from the well-stocked store of George Wallace 
 at Vincennes. The woodwork was prepared and put in place 
 by Hugh Shaw and William Shaw, master carpenters. The 
 shutters with fixed slats, the mantels, the molded trim, the doors 
 and window sashes, all seem to have been made at the house. 
 
 An inventory that shows the house to have been adequately 
 furnished includes silverware, glassware, china, desks, a din- 
 ing table, sideboard and serving tables, a bookcase, and twelve 
 Windsor chairs. The list of personal property included two 
 negro slaves. 
 
 The will provided that his son should "have a classical edu- 
 cation ... be taught fencing and dancing . . . have one year 
 at a military school, and . . . then be allowed to choose his 
 own profession or occupation." To an executor of the will 
 were to be given all his "books, maps and backgammon table." 
 
 The three young children were educated by private tutors 
 at Vincennes and Shawneetown. When they grew older two 
 of them, George and Harriet, went by horseback to Cincinnati, 
 where they spent the winter at the school of the Misses Bailey. 
 The faded old records show that among other things that were 
 bought for Harriet in preparation for this momentous trip 
 were paper and quills and a paintbox, together with a leghorn 
 bonnet and ribbon and a Canton crepe shawl. 
 
 Harriet White was married at White Hall to Albert Gal- 
 latin Sloo, and they lived there for many years. Mr. Sloo de- 
 veloped a famous transportation business with lines of stage- 
 coaches that traversed the entire West, and was at one time 
 the largest contractor for carrying the mails in the United 
 States. 8 During all these years White Hall was known as a 
 center of generous hospitality. 
 
 8 Turpie, David, Sketches of My Own Times, p. 147 (Indianapolis, 1903). 
 
Vft 
 
 fc -""--*-^-4.n4. 
 
 White Hall — Knox County, 1811 
 
 Two-story log house — Franklin County, 1809 
 
 *g#^ 
 
 Ewbank Home — Dearborn County, 1S2Q 
 
EARLY ARCHITECTS AND BUILDERS 187 
 
 The impression that we get of the manner of living of this 
 family of some wealth and position in Indiana Territory is in 
 sharp contrast with that of young Abraham Lincoln who was 
 growing to manhood in a log cabin not many miles away. 
 
 Plans for the appealing little cathedral of St. Francis 
 Xavier at Vincennes seem, to have been adapted from those of 
 the cathedral at Bardstown, Kentucky, of which John Rogers 
 of Baltimore is said to have been both architect and builder. 9 
 
 When work on the building at Vincennes was begun in 
 1825 Bishop Flaget, who had been a priest there many years 
 before, was at the head of the diocese at Bardstown, where the 
 cathedral had been built under his administration. He made a 
 visit to Vincennes a few months before the building there was 
 begun. 
 
 The two buildings are similar in size and in classic design. 
 In both of them the interior columns that support the roof 
 were cut from great trees in the neighboring forests. The por- 
 tico that is a feature of the Bardstown cathedral was omitted 
 at Vincennes. Construction work on this building continued 
 for at least fifteen years before sufficient funds could be 
 raised for its completion. 
 
 When the diocese of Vincennes was created in 1834 Bishop 
 Brute noted that lumber for the spire was being cut at St. 
 Francisville a few miles down the river. This spire or steeple 
 is entirely different from the one at Bardstown. By that time 
 the builders seem to have lost or forgotten the original plans. 
 The one that they built, using, no doubt, some of the handbooks 
 on the subject, is in the spirit of those on the famous small 
 churches of Sir Christopher Wren. It is beautiful in its pro- 
 portions though perhaps it might be criticized as being a bit 
 too large in scale. 
 
 The cathedral and its surroundings, including the library, 
 the priests' house, the simple little chapel of over a century 
 ago, and the old cemetery, are not only rich in historic associa- 
 tions but are eloquent in the story that they tell of manners, 
 ideals, and aspirations at that time in this western town. 
 
 9 A description of the building of the Vincennes cathedral is given by 
 Sister Mary Salesia Godecker in her biography of Simon Brute de Remur 
 . . ., pp. 181 ff. (St. Meinrad, Ind., 1931). 
 
188 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 The house of Judge Abner Ellis, at Vincennes, built in the 
 Greek Revival manner of brick and buff sandstone, was re- 
 ferred to in the Indiana Gazetteer of 1849 as tne finest resi- 
 dence in the state. This was overpraise, as there were houses 
 in the same town, such as the Bonner mansion, built in 1842, 
 that were of equal merit; but it is still a charming building. 
 
 A definite contrast to the town of Vincennes was the set- 
 tlement established on a beautiful tract of land farther down 
 the Wabash by George Rapp and his followers, a band of over 
 eight hundred German peasants. Here in 181 5 was founded 
 the village of "Harmonie," where in the next few years this 
 industrious communistic society erected a number of solid and 
 substantial masonry buildings for general use, in addition to 
 many smaller dwellings. They were no doubt influenced as to 
 architectural form by records and memories of buildings in the 
 Fatherland. These buildings, some of considerable size, were 
 satisfying in appearance because of simple design and honest 
 construction. 10 
 
 Their large brick church was a remarkable building. The 
 upper story was supported by twenty-eight pillars of walnut, 
 cherry, and sassafras, the walnut pillars being six feet in cir- 
 cumference. The old number two community house is still 
 standing, its outward appearance unchanged. 
 
 This community became the setting for an even more am- 
 bitious social experiment when in 1824 the properties of the 
 Rappites were purchased by Robert Owen and became known 
 as New Harmony. Many able men came to the settlement, 
 inspired by Owen's idealism, and this little outpost of civiliza- 
 tion was for a time an important cultural and scientific center. 
 
 In his account of the community, the Duke of Saxe- Wei- 
 mar, who was there in 1826, speaks of meeting an English ar- 
 chitect of talent, Mr. Whitwell, who had come to this country 
 with Mr. Owen. Little new building was needed, however, 
 and Mr. Whitwell had no great amount of work to do. 
 
 10 For a description of the village and its more important buildings in 
 1825, as described in the New Harmony Gazette, see Lockwood, George B., 
 The New Harmony Communities, pp. 111-19 (The Chronicle Company, 
 Marion, Ind., 1902). Sir Charles Lyell, the Scotch geologist, who visited 
 the town, described the buildings as in the German style of architecture. 
 Ibid., 268. 
 
EARLY ARCHITECTS AND BUILDERS 189 
 
 When the house that had been known as the Rapp mansion 
 burned in 1844, it was rebuilt for William Maclure, in quite 
 a different fashion, by George Beal and John R. Hugo, mas- 
 ter carpenters. They followed the classic tendency of the day, 
 using columns that they had turned by hand on the wide open 
 portico. It is still a most attractive house. 
 
 Nearby is the David Dale Owen house, his "New Labora- 
 tory," designed by Dr. Owen himself after he and his brother, 
 Robert Dale Owen, had built the old Smithsonian building in 
 Washington in collaboration with James Renwick, the archi- 
 tect. It is said that this versatile man enjoyed creating so dis- 
 tinctive a house, notable for its original details. He used tri- 
 lobites and other interesting geological forms for chimney pots 
 and laid the walks with marble slabs from his old laboratory 
 tables. 11 This house was built in the beginning of a restless per- 
 iod — one of those periods in which an endeavor to be original 
 results in many buildings that are terrible in design. But many 
 features of the home built by Dr. Owen are at once original 
 and attractive. 
 
 When the seat of government of Indiana Territory was 
 moved to the town of Corydon, the legislature and the Con- 
 stitutional Convention of 18 16 met in the new courthouse that 
 had been designed and built by Dennis Pennington. He was 
 an able citizen, at one time speaker of the territorial House. 
 
 The little stone building, with its well-proportioned cupola, 
 that has stood for over a century, speaks well for the honesty 
 of his workmanship. It also speaks convincingly of the great 
 influence of the books prepared in those days by capable archi- 
 tects for the use of builders. Dennis Pennington had no train- 
 ing as an architect, yet with their aid he produced, in what was 
 then a western frontier town, a simple and inexpensive build- 
 ing that is a creditable example of early American architecture. 
 
 Good building stone was to be found throughout southern 
 Indiana, and many of the more important homes were built of 
 that material, or of brick that was usually made at some near- 
 by claybank. A good stone building at Corydon was the two- 
 story tavern, built in 1807 by Jacob Conrad. The walls of na- 
 
 "Notes by Nora C. Fretageot, librarian, The Workingmen's Institute, 
 New Harmony. 
 
190 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 tive blue limestone were eighteen inches thick. Much of the 
 woodwork was prepared with broadaxe and whipsaw. 
 
 Timber for building was plentiful at that time throughout 
 the state. Some structures of considerable size such as double 
 cabins, two-story cabins, mills, barns, and bridges, were built 
 in southern Indiana of hewed timbers, so well designed and so 
 sound in construction that a number of them are still in use. 12 
 
 These first settlements in Indiana were along or near the 
 larger rivers, that provided a means of transportation. In the 
 year 1820 a committee from the legislature selected a site for 
 the new state capital, afterwards named Indianapolis. Well 
 located near the center of the state, it was in the heart of a 
 dense forest, many miles from any settlement, except the oc- 
 casional cabin of a hunter or trapper. Before the state offices 
 could be moved, it was necessary that a town of some sort 
 should be built. 
 
 Within a year after surveys were made and the first lots 
 sold, several hundred settlers began to clear the land and build 
 places in which to live. Among them were a number who fol- 
 lowed the trade of carpenter and joiner, and every man in the 
 settlement was handy with the saw, axe, adz, frow, draw- 
 knife, and auger that were needed to construct the early cabins, 
 taverns, and general stores, most of them built of hewed 
 squared timbers, with roofs of split shingles and with puncheon 
 floors. 13 
 
 It had been realized by members of the legislature that un- 
 less provision was made for some sort of public building at 
 the new capital, there would be no place for them to meet. Lit- 
 tle money could be raised by local taxation ; they were not ready 
 to build a statehouse ; and so they set aside a square of ground 
 for the site of a courthouse for the new county of Marion and 
 
 12 An account of different types of buildings of log construction at that 
 time in Indiana may be found in The New Purchase, by Baynard Rush 
 Hall (Princeton University Press, 1916). See pages 93 ff. 
 
 David Thomas, the naturalist, in an account of his travels through the 
 western country in 1816 said: "Pine grows up the Wabash, and on the 
 knobs of the Ohio and Silver Creek. It appears, however, to be a scarce 
 article, and even window-sash is made of black walnut." 
 
 13 For a description of the early cabin, see Turpie, Sketches of My Own 
 Times, pp. 1-3. 
 
The Capitol at Corydon 
 
 The Sullivan House, Madison 
 
 The Vance-Tousey House, Lazvrenceburg 
 
EARLY ARCHITECTS AND BUILDERS 191 
 
 made an appropriation of eight thousand dollars to help pay 
 for it. 
 
 Before a contract could be made for construction of a build- 
 ing of such importance it was necessary to secure some plans 
 and specifications. After a number of proposals had been con- 
 sidered the contract was awarded in 1823 to James Paxton 
 and John E. Baker, on plans submitted by them, for a cost of 
 about fourteen thousand dollars. 14 Many preparations were 
 necessary. A brickyard was opened near Washington Street 
 and the river. Heavy timbers of oak, ash, walnut, and tulip 
 poplar were cut, squared, and seasoned. Planks were sawed, 
 shingles split, lime burned for mortar and plaster, and within 
 a few months the building was well under way. 
 
 This was the first public building in Indianapolis and for 
 a good many years it was not only the official but also the so- 
 cial center of the town. The courtroom was used for nearly 
 all public gatherings, such as lectures and political meetings, 
 and most of the early church organizations met there until they 
 could erect buildings of their own. 
 
 The next public building was known as the governor's 
 mansion, a square, two-story brick house located in the circle 
 that was the center of the original town plat. It was built in 
 1827 at a cost of $6,500 from plans submitted by the builders. 
 But no governor could ever be induced to live in it, for the 
 house was equally conspicuous from every direction and there 
 was no opportunity for a stable, vegetable garden, or service 
 yard. Some of the rooms were used as state offices, and Isaac 
 Blackford, the able chief justice of the supreme court, lived 
 for a time in a room on the second floor. Finally the building 
 was torn down. 
 
 A few years after the completion of the "governor's man- 
 sion," it was decided to build a statehouse, and James Blake 
 was appointed as commissioner to select a plan, for which he 
 was authorized to spend the munificent sum of $I50. 15 In 
 
 14 See "Historical Sketch" in Indianapolis Directory, 1857, p. 18. 
 
 1B In his advertisement for plans Mr. Blake said the whole cost of the 
 statehouse was not to exceed $48,000 and, "That persons may be enabled to 
 estimate the relative prices of labor and materials in the vicinity, I have 
 thought it advisable to annex the following data: 
 
 "Materials. — Stone is furnished in the wall on bridges, on the National 
 
192 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 183 1 he reported to the legislature that no less than twenty- 
 one plans had been received, including those by such able archi- 
 tects as Robert Mills of Washington, William Strickland of 
 Philadelphia, and Ithiel Town and Alexander Jackson Davis 
 of New York. In December the committee on public buildings 
 reported that having made a minute examination of all these 
 plans, they were agreed that the one submitted by Town and 
 Davis should be adopted. 16 
 
 Town made a contract to do the work, under the super- 
 vision of a committee headed by Governor Noble. The design 
 of the exterior reflected the Greek Revival that then was ex- 
 erting so tremendous an influence on the architecture of west- 
 ern Europe and the Atlantic states. The main body of the 
 building, which cost about sixty thousand dollars, followed the 
 lines of a Greek temple, but Mr. Town went the Greeks one 
 better by surmounting it with a Roman dome. 
 
 At first the building caused much favorable comment and 
 during the interchange of compliments, Town begged leave to 
 present to the legislature a perspective drawing of the com- 
 pleted structure, which was received by them with a number 
 of highly commendatory remarks. 17 Within twenty years, 
 however, the building began to go to pieces. The soft stone 
 used for the foundation crumbled away; stucco, that covered 
 the brick walls in imitation of stone, came off in great patches; 
 plaster fell from the ceiling of the legislative hall to such an ex- 
 tent as to make it unsafe, and the building was pronounced a 
 disgrace to the state. 
 
 Town was an authority on the building of bridges and had 
 written a book on the subject. While he was in Indianapolis, 
 he prepared plans, based on his celebrated lattice-truss method 
 of construction, for the bridge over Fall Creek on the 
 Lafayette road. 
 
 Road, in this vicinity, at $7 50 cts. per perch, of 25 cubic feet. Best Brick 
 estimated at $6 50 per thousand in the wall. Lumber from $1 to 1 50 per 
 hundred feet. Carpenters and Bricklayers, at $1 25 to 1 50 per day. Labor- 
 ers, $10 per month. Boarding from $1 25 to 2 00 per week." 
 
 16 See Indiana House Journal, 183 1, pp. 72, 154. Ithiel Town was the 
 architect of the statehouse at New Haven built in 1829. Town and Davis 
 designed the old Custom House, now the Subtreasury, in New York. 
 
 "Ibid., 1834, P- 88. 
 
EARLY ARCHITECTS AND BUILDERS 193 
 
 In 1833, two years after the competition was held for this 
 first statehouse, there came to the town from Harrisburg, 
 Pennsylvania, an energetic and resourceful builder named John 
 Elder, who had been one of the contractors for bridges and 
 other work on the Juniata division of the Pennsylvania canal, 
 for which De Witt Clinton was the engineer. He may have 
 been here before to submit a plan for the statehouse, for he 
 had some correspondence on the subject and a plan prepared 
 by him is still preserved among his many papers and docu- 
 ments. For several years after coming to Indianapolis he 
 spent part of his time in partnership with Joseph Mathers as 
 a landlord of the Union Inn. 
 
 Until he left for the gold fields of California in 1850, El- 
 der had much to do with building work in central Indiana. 
 Many courthouses were needed, and Elder secured contracts 
 for building a number of them from plans that he prepared and 
 submitted. Among them were the buildings at Frankfort, Co- 
 lumbus, Rushville, and Connersville. The latter was illustrated 
 by a woodcut in the Indiana Gazetteer of 1849, an d described 
 by the editor as one of the "most spacious, convenient, and 
 substantial" buildings of its kind in the state. It resembled in 
 some ways a design in one of the books of Asher Benjamin. 
 
 The construction records for the Rushville courthouse be- 
 gan with an item in March, 1846, for stage and tavern bill and 
 ended about two years later with an entry of thirty dollars paid 
 for a lightning rod and paper for the courtroom. They in- 
 cluded the cost of making brick molds and over one hundred 
 cords of wood for burning the brick. The most expensive item 
 was a pair of iron doors for which Horton and Baker of Cin- 
 cinnati were paid $150. It was necessary to use a team of 
 horses for six days to deliver them to the job. 
 
 The cost of the courthouse at Frankfort, including an ad- 
 dition and a number of extras such as a more elegant finish for 
 the skylight in the ceiling of the courtroom, was $9,125. It 
 was begun in the fall of 1836 and completed in 1839. 18 
 
 The account books of John Elder show that he made what 
 would now be considered very modest charges for his work as 
 an architect. However, this work consisted of little more than 
 
 18 See Account Book of John Elder. 
 
194 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 a floor plan and a brief description of materials. He charged 
 Henry Ward Beecher $15 for draft, specifications, bill of tim- 
 ber, and estimates for a dwelling house ; Charles Mayer, $6 for 
 draft and specifications for a storehouse; and Hervey Bates, 
 $12 for "several drafts, specifications and bills of stone for his 
 double stores on Washington Street." 
 
 It is evident that Elder made an effort to build up a useful 
 collection of architectural books. His library contained among 
 other interesting volumes one that reproduced measured draw- 
 ings of the famous Tremont House that had just been com- 
 pleted in Boston, and there is still preserved from his collec- 
 tion the Book of Prices of the House Carpenters & Joiners of 
 the Town of Indianapolis, as adopted in June, 1836. 19 
 
 At about that time the state decided to locate a number of 
 benevolent institutions at Indianapolis and appointed commis- 
 sions to make surveys of the requirements. The report of the 
 commissioners for the proposed Hospital for the Insane, made 
 in 1846, said that "Feeling the importance of having a build- 
 ing of this character properly constructed, it was esteemed es- 
 sential to submit important practical matters to the direction of 
 a competent architect, and Mr. John Elder was appointed to 
 this duty." 20 
 
 For making the drafts for the first hospital building, which 
 was to be of brick, covered with cement in imitation of stone, 
 three stories in height and surmounted with a dome in the pre- 
 vailing classical style, Elder presented a bill of one hundred 
 
 19 Mr. Elder's papers contain a memorandum, sent to him by his son in 
 New York, giving prices of the following list of books : 
 
 "Fredgold's Elementary Principles of Carpentery, Philadelphia, 
 1837, Large Quarto — with Drawings $ 5.00 
 
 "Domestic Architecture 2 vols. Large — London, 1838, with 
 Very Fine Colored plates of Houses, Villas, &c $16.25 
 
 "Godwin's Rural Architecture, 2 Large Vols, with 
 Beautiful Designs $20.00 
 
 "Builder's Assistant, by Haviland, 4 vols. Baltimore, 
 1840— 1 Vol. Plates $10.00 
 
 "Pocock's Designs for Finishing Rooms, London, 1835, 
 Full of Splendid Plates $ 6.50 
 
 "Lefever's Modern Architecture, New York, 1839, 
 with plates $ 55<>." 
 
 ^Annual Report, 1846, p. 57. 
 
EARLY ARCHITECTS AND BUILDERS 195 
 
 dollars. He was also to act as superintendent, at three dollars 
 a day when actually employed. 
 
 There was spirited competition for this state work, and the 
 next report of the commissioners referred to Joseph Willis of 
 Logansport as "the present architect," who was to receive 
 sixty-five dollars a month so long as he gave satisfaction and 
 was needed. 21 
 
 Several years before this Willis had submitted plans and 
 had received a contract for building a courthouse at Logans- 
 port on a basis of cost plus ten per cent. 22 After working on 
 the building for nearly two years he was paid $350 and re- 
 leased from the contract, as it seemed evident that he would be 
 unable to complete the building at his estimated cost. 
 
 Willis continued with the work on the Hospital for the In- 
 sane until the north wing was completed, but in 1852, when 
 extensions were under way, a report refers to Joseph Curzon 
 as the architect. 23 
 
 Curzon had come to the town a year or so before and had 
 soon acquired a good practice. He was the architect for the 
 Union Railway Station, built in 1852, which was the first un- 
 ion station in America. The drawing for the elevation and a 
 photograph of the completed building, both of which are pre- 
 served by the Indianapolis Union Railway Company, show that 
 Colonel Morris, the engineer who had charge of the construc- 
 tion work, omitted most of the ornamental details that Curzon 
 had planned, being able no doubt to convince the owners that 
 these bits of wrought iron and carved stone would serve no 
 useful purpose. This point of view has not been unknown to 
 the engineering profession from that day to this. 
 
 Among other buildings designed by Curzon was the Second 
 Presbyterian Church, where he was a member of the congre- 
 gation. It was begun in 1864, and was one of the best church 
 buildings in the town. 24 
 
 When the old Vajen residence, built in 1862, was torn 
 
 21 Ibid., 1847, pp. 58, 60, 61; 1848, p. 28; 1849, P. 112. 
 
 "Powell, Jehu Z., History of Cass County Indiana . . ., Vol. 1, p. 67 
 (Chicago and New York, 1913). 
 
 "Annual Report, 1852, p. 181. 
 
 **For an account of the dedication of the church, see Indianapolis 
 Journal, January 10, 1870. 
 
196 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 down in 1930 to make way for a building of the Telephone 
 Company, there was found in the cornerstone a card inscribed : 
 "Architect, Joseph Curzon, formerly of Harrisburg, Pennsyl- 
 vania, born in Derbyshire, England, and a resident of this city 
 since 185 1." 
 
 The architect of the Institute for the Deaf and Dumb was 
 Mr. Willis. In his report on the progress of the work in De- 
 cember, 1849, 25 he described the buildings as being built of brick 
 and stone with slate roofs. The brick was covered with stuc- 
 co. At the entrance was a Doric portico, and the main build- 
 ing was to be surmounted by a cupola finished with a dome 
 over one hundred feet from the ground. 
 
 Willis gave the cubical contents of these buildings as 764,- 
 000 feet and estimated the entire cost, including eight Walker's 
 patent hot-air furnaces, as $55,000 or 7 1/3 cents a foot. In 
 this connection he quoted from an interesting article by Rob- 
 ert Dale Owen, entitled "Hints on Public Architecture" in 
 which Owen gave the cost of a number of public buildings in 
 the eastern states. This included the Capitol at Washington at 
 about 50 cents a foot, the Treasury Building at about 30 1/3 
 cents, and Trinity Church, New York, at 41 cents. The cost 
 of the first statehouse at Indianapolis was given at about 
 
 10 1/4 cents a foot and the State Bank Building at about 
 
 11 3/4 cents — all of which made a brave showing for Willis. 
 However, for some unknown reason, he resigned as architect 
 the following June, before the buildings were completed. 
 
 With his private practice Willis seems to have had a less 
 turbulent experience. He was architect of the Masonic Hall, 
 located diagonally across from the statehouse, that was, at the 
 time, one of the best buildings in town. It was three stories in 
 height, of the Greek type of architecture, with a portico across 
 the front. The assembly hall, much larger than the room in 
 the courthouse, became the center for all important gatherings. 
 It was used by the legislature when the statehouse was in bad 
 condition; the Constitution of 1851 was framed within its 
 walls, and among those who lectured there were Edward Ever- 
 ett, Horace Greeley, and Bayard Taylor. Lucy Stone talked 
 on women's rights and caused great commotion by wearing a 
 
 25 "Architect's Report," in Sixth Annual Report, 1849, pp. 71 ff. 
 
EARLY ARCHITECTS AND BUILDERS 197 
 
 bloomer costume, and Ole Bull gave a violin recital in the hall 
 that was long remembered. 26 
 
 The trustees of the Institute for the Blind in their report in 
 185 1 said in regard to their building that the plan was furnished 
 to the board by their superintendent, Mr. W. H. Churchman, 
 "it being the result of several years' study and examination." 27 
 
 The report went on to say that "the drafts of design were 
 first made under Mr. Churchman's directions by Mr. John El- 
 der . . . but were subsequently very much improved in archi- 
 tectural fitness and taste by Mr. F. Costigan, of Madison, in 
 this State. 
 
 "The Trustees have been much gratified in having secured 
 the valuable services of Mr. Costigan, both in perfecting the 
 design, and, as architectural superintendent, in controlling the 
 erection of the building. His refined taste as a draftsman, and 
 superior skill in carrying out the practical details of the work, 
 as well as his fidelity in the selection of materials, give assur- 
 ance to the Board, that the whole construction of the building 
 will be executed in the most approved manner." 
 
 This praise of Costigan was richly deserved. He was with- 
 out question one of the most talented architects and builders 
 that Indiana has known, and in bringing him to Indianapolis 
 the trustees did a great service to the community. 
 
 Costigan began his training at Baltimore as a carpenter's 
 apprentice. Having mastered that trade, he finished a course 
 of study as an architect and became a skilled draftsman. In 
 1835 he was listed in the Baltimore Directory as a carpenter 
 and builder, with shops on Frederick Street. The financial de- 
 pression of the following years caused him to come to the 
 West, where he located at the prosperous river town of Madi- 
 son and built a number of important buildings. 
 
 He had a fine sense of design and his pencil drawings were 
 delightful. Renderings in perspective that he made of his de- 
 sign for the Institute for the Blind, for the buildings for the 
 Deaf and Dumb, and for the Hospital for the Insane, where 
 he seems to have been called in now and then as consulting ar- 
 
 ^Sulgrove, B. R., History of Indianapolis and Marion County, Indiana, 
 PP- 2 55-56, 262, 263 (Philadelphia, 1884). 
 ™ Annual Report, 185 1, p. 237. 
 
198 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 chitect, were reproduced by steel engravings in our first city 
 directory, 28 and a series of his drawings of Indiana scenes was 
 published at about the same time in Gleason's Magazine. He is 
 said to have been the architect of the Bates House, a hostelry 
 that was famous in its day, and while there is no definite record 
 of this, the design of the building and its cupola were charac- 
 teristic of his work. 29 
 
 Like many another architect Costigan seems to have grown 
 tired at times of following classic precedents and attempted to 
 create something in a different tradition. He was a master of 
 classic proportion and detail, but his ventures with a more pic- 
 turesque style on the Odd Fellows' Building, and on a hotel 
 that he built for himself, known as the Oriental House, were 
 not so successful. 
 
 Mr. Holloway, a local historian, records the Odd Fellows' 
 Building as begun by Francis Costigan and finished with a 
 dome by D. A. Bohlen. He said, "Its style is certainly non- 
 descript, a sort of cross between a Gothic Chapel and the Taj 
 Mahal, but it is the most attractive building on Washington 
 street for all that" ! 
 
 Costigan died in Indianapolis. His will, probated in 1865, 
 directed that the Oriental House, described as his only real 
 estate, should be given to his wife and children. 
 
 One of the early city directories lists as architects D. A. 
 Bohlen, Francis Costigan, Joseph Curzon, George Rodman, 
 Isaac Hodgson, and Edwin May. 
 
 Edwin May was an active and versatile architect and build- 
 er of the fifties. In 1849 ne took a contract to build the court- 
 house at Franklin from plans made by John Elder. Three 
 years later his plans were adopted for the courthouse at Brook- 
 ville, which in design and construction was a very creditable 
 building, and that same year he built the courthouse at Shelby- 
 ville. He was architect of the courthouse at Sullivan, built in 
 1852, and of the courthouse at Greensburg, begun in 1854, a 
 building with some suggestions of the Romanesque, built years 
 
 ^Groom's & Smith's Indianapolis Directory . . . 1855, facing pp. 30 
 and 32; Hospital for the Insane, Annual Report, 1851, p. 130. 
 
 ""See illustration of the Bates House in Indiana State Gazetteer, 1858- 
 1859. 
 
Portico of the Institute for the Blind, begun in 1852 
 
 Indianapolis 
 
 Francis Costigan, architect 
 
EARLY ARCHITECTS AND BUILDERS 199 
 
 before the revival of that architectural style by Richardson in 
 the seventies. He was also architect of the courthouse at Fort 
 Wayne, which was begun in 1859, of the courthouse at Vin- 
 cennes, and of one of the large buildings at the Hospital for 
 the Insane. 30 
 
 Both May and Costigan took contracts for parts of the 
 construction work on the first Government Post Office Build- 
 ing, designed in the office of the Supervising Architect of the 
 Treasury by Ammi B. Young. 
 
 In connection with his work on county buildings May be- 
 came the patentee of an iron jail, in the arrangement of which, 
 as he described it in an advertisement, there was always an iron 
 grating between the prisoners and the keeper. He also avoided 
 the monotony of waiting for architectural commissions by 
 operating a loan office. 31 
 
 His last and most important achievement was reached when 
 his plans were adopted for the present statehouse. He died be- 
 fore the building was well under way and the work was com- 
 pleted under the direction of Adolf Scherrer, who had been in 
 his office, and who was appointed supervising architect. 
 
 Scherrer, a native of Saint Gall, Switzerland, had studied 
 architecture in Vienna at the Academy of Fine Arts and with 
 several important European architects. He came to Indian- 
 apolis in 1872 and was an active member of the architectural 
 profession until his death in 1925. His work of a later period 
 included the Maennerchor Hall, the old State Bank in Evans- 
 ville, the City Hospital in Indianapolis, and the building for 
 the Elks Club. 
 
 William Tinsley, an architect of ability, came here from 
 Cincinnati in the early fifties, when his plans for Northwest- 
 ern Christian University were adopted. In his business card 
 in the city Directory of 1857 he described himself not only as 
 architect of this building but also as "Architect and Civil Engi- 
 neer" of Indiana University, Wabash College, Christ Church, 
 and "various private Mansions, Villas, Court Houses, Jails, 
 Churches." 
 
 ^Sulgrove, History of Indianapolis, p. 124. See survey of building in 
 an article called "Improvements of 1876," in Indianapolis Journal, July 4, 
 1876. 
 
 w See advertisements in city Directory, 1864 ff. 
 
200 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 Whatever may be the point of view of an architect as to 
 the ethics of advertising, it is refreshing to find such a definite 
 list of Tinsley's work. It was of a high order of merit. He 
 was the first architect in Indiana to revive the use of Gothic 
 forms and he used them with sympathy and understanding. 
 The university building in Indianapolis, Gothic in its ante- 
 cedents, was better in design than the one that succeeded it 
 when the school was moved to Irvington, and Christ Church is 
 a charming bit of architecture that would, perhaps, in a popu- 
 lar vote rank as the loveliest building in town. 
 
 Tinsley was born in Clonmel, Ireland, in 1804. He studied 
 architecture with his uncle, John Tinsley, and designed a num- 
 ber of important buildings that were constructed in southern 
 Ireland. Coming to this country at the time of the rebellion 
 in 1850 he soon became recognized as a man of unusual 
 ability. 32 
 
 Among that group of early architects in Indianapolis, D. A. 
 Bohlen was the only one to establish a practice with which his 
 name is still connected. He was born near Hanover, Germany, 
 and studied architecture at the school in Holzminden. After 
 completing this course he traveled on foot through the north 
 of Germany and Poland, making sketches and studying meth- 
 ods of construction, as was customary at that time. After 
 these traveling years he entered an office at Altoona as drafts- 
 man, where he remained until he was required to enter the 
 army. He came to the United States in 1852 and the following 
 year worked for a short time in the office of Costigan. With- 
 in a few months he opened an office of his own which he 
 maintained until his death. 
 
 He was architect for the convent and school of St. Mary- 
 of-the-Woods at Terre Haute, begun in 1858, and for the con- 
 vent and school at Oldenburg, in Franklin County. Among 
 the buildings of his design that are still standing in Indianapo- 
 lis are Tomlinson Hall, St. John's Cathedral, and Roberts 
 Park Church. 
 
 Isaac Hodgson referred to himself in an advertisement in 
 a city Directory of 1855 as ''Architect and Superintendent." 
 
 82 Pickerill, William N., "William Tinsley, Architect," in Butler Alum- 
 nal Quarterly, Vol. 3, No. 3, pp. 116-20 (October, 1914). 
 
EARLY ARCHITECTS AND BUILDERS 201 
 
 He was born in Belfast, Ireland, in 1826. At the age of six- 
 teen he entered the architectural office of Sir Charles Lan- 
 yard where he studied for three years. He came to America 
 in 1848, secured a position as assistant architect for some gov- 
 ernment buildings at Louisville, and then came to Indianapo- 
 lis, where he had charge of construction work on the buildings 
 of the United States Arsenal. 33 
 
 He designed the picturesque old courthouse at Covington, 
 erected in 1857, for which he received a fee of 4 1/2 per cent 
 for plans, specifications, and supervision, 34 and he was archi- 
 tect of the courthouses at Martinsville and Vernon. These 
 three buildings, somewhat similar in design, show the influ- 
 ence of a delightful type of Italian architecture. 
 
 Hodgson was also the architect of Rose Polytechnic Insti- 
 tute at Terre Haute, begun in 1875, 35 of the Women's Reform- 
 atory, of the second courthouse at Columbus, completed in 
 187 1, and of the present courthouse in Indianapolis, completed 
 in 1876. 
 
 This was the most elaborate building of its kind in the 
 state. It was planned in the grand manner, for show rather 
 than for use, created much comment, and was visited by thou- 
 sands from near and far. Built during that ambitious and 
 eclectic period following the Civil War, when every effort was 
 made to discover some different and more striking style, it fol- 
 lowed precedents of French architecture of the Third Empire. 
 
 Columns of polished red granite used on the exterior were 
 brought from Scotland. Much of the elaborate interior deco- 
 ration was of "carton pierre," an imitation of stonework, crude 
 in design. The floors were of tile in strong colors. A group 
 of Italian decorators was brought from the East, who painted 
 the walls in a profusion of colors that would have rivaled the 
 coat of Joseph, treated the trim in imitation of many types of 
 marble, and covered the ceilings of the principal rooms with 
 allegorical frescoes. 
 
 ^Biographical History of Eminent and Self -Made Men of . . . Indiana, 
 Vol. I, 7th dist., pp. 94-95 (Western Biographical Publishing Company, 
 Cincinnati, 1880). 
 
 M See Records in County Auditor's office at Covington. 
 
 85 Bradsby, H. C, History of Vigo County, Indiana, p. 533 (S. B. Nelson 
 & Co., publishers, Chicago, 1891). 
 
202 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 From public buildings such as this, and they became very 
 popular, came precedents for many pretentious homes of that 
 period. Intended to be elegant and impressive, with the man- 
 sard roofs, cupolas, high ceilings, and elaborate ornamentation 
 that were characteristic of that ostentatious style, they now 
 seem to many of us to be both unlivable and unlovable. 
 
 With the growth of Indianapolis, most of the work of the 
 early architects has been torn away. The few examples of 
 public buildings that remain, such as Tinsley's Christ Church, 
 seem to many of the present generation to be very good, and 
 many of us like the simple designs of the homes of those days. 
 But in the eighties, when our architectural styles were a riot 
 of unrest, a local historian wrote in a very superior and patron- 
 izing way of the earlier work. 
 
 Under the heading of Fine Arts he said, "In nothing, ex- 
 cept music, is the improvement in taste more noticeable than 
 in the houses now built for residence. The 'goods-box' order 
 of architecture has disappeared. Houses have fronts varied by 
 porches, porticos, pillars, projections, painting, offsets, bay- 
 windows, ornamental wood-work, costing but little more than 
 the square, staring, white family depositories of the last gen- 
 eration, but with a suggestion of beauty wholly invisible in the 
 other." 36 
 
 This enthusiasm for the domestic architecture of the per- 
 iod must have reflected the opinion of the great majority, as 
 most of the houses built at that time in the Middle West had 
 some of the porticos, pillars, and projections that Sulgrove 
 admired so much. 
 
 This had come to be the prosperous and hurried age of ma- 
 chinery. Men with new-found fortunes, who started to see 
 the world, traveled by railway train and steamship, instead of 
 the slower stagecoach and sailing vessel. Coming back from 
 their travels, impressed by the architecture of many lands and 
 many centuries, they tried with imperfect knowledge to pro- 
 duce examples of varied and incongruous styles. 
 
 It is not difficult to understand the reaction that had come 
 from the inflexible dictation of the Greek Revival. Had our 
 
 86 Sulgrove, History of Indianapolis, p. 265. 
 
EARLY ARCHITECTS AND BUILDERS 203 
 
 architects understood their opportunity, had they been given 
 sufficient time, and had they had the ability and enthusiasm 
 needed to accomplish it, an evolution into a style having more 
 freedom would have been greatly to be desired. But the many 
 experiments with buildings that were described as Italian vil- 
 las, French mansions, Swiss chalets, Romanesque railway sta- 
 tions, or other catchwords that caught the fancy of the owner 
 or building committee, served only to create confusion. 
 
 In more leisurely days it had been thought well worth while 
 for a gentleman of culture to give careful study to the work of 
 a single period. Now our diluted democracy, with rapidly in- 
 creasing material wealth and eager to build in a manner that 
 would impress all beholders, had all too little time for scholarly 
 study and restraint. 
 
 The result was a chaos through which architects faltered 
 along unfamiliar pathways. Some strove to achieve effects 
 that were romantic and picturesque, with battlements and tow- 
 ers reminiscent of feudal times. Some, impressed by the writ- 
 ings of Ruskin and his disciples, tried in a vague way to ex- 
 press his ideas in brick and stone, and grew enthusiastic about 
 such phrases as "truth in structure" or "form following func- 
 tion" as has been done by the radicals of each succeeding gen- 
 eration. But they were only to prove again, if proof were 
 needed, that literary ability does not necessarily inspire artis- 
 tic creation in some other medium. While those who took full 
 advantage of their freedom to make the world anew, and ex- 
 press their own ideas, unrestrained by precedent, created little 
 or nothing of value. 37 
 
 Many streets of our towns, that had been developed, origi- 
 nally, with some architectural unity, came to resemble shelves 
 of a sample room where examples of every style, known or un- 
 known, were to be seen side by side, each clashing with its 
 neighbors. This confusion, existing in Europe as well as 
 America, has continued to a great extent from that day to 
 
 37 Hints on Household Taste, by Charles L. Eastlake, published in Lon- 
 don in 1868, went into many editions. It was widely read in this country. 
 The book was a well-meant plea for simple and honest workmanship, but 
 as interpreted by untrained enthusiasts the results were little but added 
 confusion. 
 
204 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 this. An English architect, writing in the seventies about 
 what he called the degraded state of house building, said, "It 
 may be that we know too much about architectural styles — 
 that the variety of our knowledge confuses us — that our rest- 
 lessness prevents us sticking to any one of them till we have 
 perfected it and made it our own." 38 
 
 Of this decadence most Americans, absorbed in amazing 
 industrial and scientific developments, seem to have been 
 wholly unconscious, although they had before them many ex- 
 amples of good work of earlier days. They were awakened 
 for a time by the breath-taking beauty created by a group of 
 great architects at the World's Fair in Chicago that caused a 
 renewed interest in the unity of classic design. 
 
 There had been, to be sure, no time when good work was 
 not being produced. From a new interest in Gothic came in- 
 teresting results, and there was much use of the style that came 
 to be known as Queen Anne, classic in some of its details, yet 
 with much of the freedom and character of Gothic. 39 There 
 are to be found in Indiana a number of simple and unpreten- 
 tious homes, built before the Civil War in what was known as 
 the English cottage style, with pointed gables and traceried 
 eaves, that are pleasing examples of the influence of that school 
 of design. 
 
 The natural resources of Indiana, and the advantages of 
 its location, combined to bring over a million new citizens to 
 the state during the first half of the nineteenth century. Farm 
 lands were cleared, roads were built, and pioneer villages de- 
 veloped into prosperous towns. From the first simple cabins, 
 building requirements in many communities over the state came 
 to include structures of considerable size and importance. A 
 brief record should be made of some of them. 
 
 There was, for instance, the courthouse at Paoli, completed 
 in 1850 after three years work, which was said to have been 
 at that time one of the best buildings of its kind in southern 
 
 36 House Architecture, by J. J. Stevenson (London, Macmillan & Co., 
 1880). 
 
 39 The books by A. J. Downing of New York on residence architecture 
 and landscape gardening, published about 1840, went through many editions. 
 They had a considerable effect on the architectural fashions of the time. 
 
EARLY ARCHITECTS AND BUILDERS 205 
 
 Indiana. It is an attractive building today, and it is unfortu- 
 nate that there seems to have been preserved but little informa- 
 tion in regard to the preparation of the plans. 40 A number of 
 other buildings that are creditable examples of the work of 
 that period may also be found in the towns along the old Na- 
 tional Road and down the Whitewater Valley. 
 
 Most of the larger and more carefully planned buildings 
 constructed during the first half of the century were in the 
 prosperous towns along the Ohio River, down which passed 
 the commerce between East, South, and West. The Vance or 
 Tousey house at Lawrenceburg, completed about 1820 by Sam- 
 uel Vance, founder of the town, from plans brought from Eng- 
 land, is still an example of good design. When it was built it 
 was thought by many to be the finest house on the river. It is 
 certain that there was no better house in the state. And there 
 are other examples of good design and good workmanship of 
 those days still to be found in the town. 
 
 In the year 181 1 John Ewbank, a native of England, came 
 to this same county and purchased a square mile of land not 
 many miles from the river, where he built for himself a double 
 log house. Within the next ten or fifteen years a number of 
 other Yorkshiremen settled in the neighborhood, and when the 
 stone house, known for over a century as the Ewbank home- 
 stead, was begun in 1829, the work was done by a number of 
 these men who had acquired their knowledge of the building 
 trades in England. 
 
 Christopher Brown was the stonemason and John Hall was 
 the master carpenter. Much of the work was done by mem- 
 bers of the Ewbank family and their neighbors. Brown was 
 
 *°In a description of the building a local history says that the circular 
 columns of the portico were made of the best brick, covered with cement 
 of great durability, while the capital was made of plain heavy slabs of 
 limestone. As was the custom in those days, the building committee first 
 made a contract for making the brick, $7.50 per thousand being paid for 
 those of the ordinary shape and $10 per thousand for those to be used in 
 the columns. A separate contract was made for furnishing the woodwork. 
 The building seems to have been constructed under the general supervision 
 of the building committee. History of Lawrence, Orange and Washington 
 Counties Indiana, pp. 421-22 (Goodspeed Bros. & Co., publishers, Chicago, 
 1884). 
 
206 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 also the builder of a number of other stone buildings in and 
 about this English settlement. His houses were noted for the 
 fact that dampness never gathered on the inside. He would 
 not permit any stone to reach through the wall with one end 
 exposed to the outside air and the other to the warm air inside 
 the house, and it was his practice to lay without mortar the 
 joints where the outside and inside stones met, so as to con- 
 stitute an air shaft through the middle of the wall. 
 
 When John Ewbank died, the year after the family moved 
 into the new house, he was over eighty years of age, but his 
 death was ascribed to the fact that he had spent the winter in 
 a house that was built of stones and mortar and newly plas- 
 tered, and an old adage was recalled to the effect "that one 
 should lend his house to his enemy the first year, to his friend 
 the second year and not live in it himself until the third year." 41 
 
 This weathered and appealing farmhouse, built of stone 
 gathered from the neighboring fields and streams, resembles 
 in many ways some of the houses to be found in Yorkshire 
 that were old when this old house was new. 
 
 At the river town of Aurora are the two large houses built 
 in the fifties for the Goff brothers. They are deserving of 
 study, in particular for the manner in which accepted details 
 were modified, or new ones introduced, without detracting 
 from the architectural unity. 
 
 On down the Ohio a number of fine homesteads that were 
 built when it was one of the most prosperous towns in the state 
 are to be found in the old Swiss town of Vevay. In some of 
 these houses a silver plate at the foot of the stairs records the 
 fact that they were the work of "George H. Kyle, architect and 
 builder." Kyle was building at Vevay during the thirties and 
 forties while Costigan was at work not far down the river at 
 Madison, and their residence work was somewhat similar in 
 character, although Costigan had a finer sense of scale and 
 proportion. 
 
 Each of them built a great brick house facing the river, 
 with a wide center hall and a circular staircase winding up and 
 up to a cupola on the roof. It is interesting today to compare 
 the U. P. Schenck house in Vevay with the Shrewsbury house 
 
 "From notes by Judge Louis B. Ewbank. 
 
EARLY ARCHITECTS AND BUILDERS 207 
 
 in Madison and wonder if the original owners, each a power 
 in his own community, had ever made a similar comparison. 
 
 Other homes in Vevay designed by Kyle were the Thie- 
 baud house, the Benjamin Schenck house, and the Craig house. 
 He was also architect of the courthouse at Lawrenceburg. 42 
 He married Tabitha Craig, an aunt of Edward Eggleston, in 
 whose novels are to be found descriptions of a number of the 
 homes in Vevay. In 1885 Kyle moved from Vevay to 
 Memphis. 
 
 Not far from Vevay on a hillside facing the river road is a 
 house that bears in a circular panel, over the center window in 
 the second story, the initials J. W. W. and the date 1836. This 
 house, which was built for John W. Wright a century ago is 
 most interesting on account of the character of the interior 
 woodwork. 
 
 It has a circular stairway of unusual design, and the elab- 
 orate carving of the mantels, and on the cornices, casings, and 
 other woodwork throughout the main rooms, shows little rela- 
 tion to the accepted classic forms that were used in most of the 
 better houses of that period. 
 
 The reason is shown when we discover that the house was 
 planned and built by Charles Bruce Freeman, and his son, 
 Thomas Freeman, who had their training as wood carvers in 
 a shipyard at New Bedford. The rope moldings and the use 
 of stars and other devices in the carved woodwork, while un- 
 usual in residence work, were common enough in the cabins of 
 the whaling ships on which they had worked. 
 
 It is not a large house, being only a story and half in height, 
 but two years or more were spent in building it. The brick 
 were burned on the place. Much of the lumber for the old 
 barns, now torn away, and some for framing the house was 
 timber from flatboats that came down from the upper Ohio. 
 It was on the interior that the builders lavished their skill as 
 wood carvers, and their beautiful workmanship is there today, 
 a delightful record of their taste and ability. Another feature 
 of the house are some ingenious old door locks that are said to 
 have been made by a local watchmaker. 
 
 i2 History of Dearborn, Ohio and Switzerland Counties, Indiana . . ., 
 p. 120 (Chicago, 1885). 
 
208 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 Among the distinguished homes in the aristocratic old town 
 of Madison was the Lanier house, a dignified and beautiful 
 residence now preserved by the state, that bears on the newel 
 of its circular stair a little silver plate with the inscription, 
 "Francis Costigan, Architect and Builder, 1844." It would be 
 well if other architects of his ability had signed and dated their 
 work. 
 
 Other important work of Costigan's at Madison included 
 the elaborate Shrewsbury house, with its remarkable free- 
 standing circular stairway, and the Madison Hotel. This ho- 
 tel, located on the corner of Second and Mulberry streets, was 
 built of brick and stone and contained ninety rooms. It was 
 considered to be one of the finest hotels on the river and when 
 it was opened with a reception and ball on March 27, 1850, it 
 was described as being second only to the famous Burnet 
 House of Cincinnati in size, finish, and convenience. 43 
 
 It seems that in the confusion incident to the opening of 
 the hotel Costigan failed to get an invitation. In a letter to the 
 public, published a few days later, Mr. Duble, the proprietor, 
 expressed his regret, saying, "I thought that Mr. Costigan was 
 invited as a matter of course." 44 
 
 A contemporary of Costigan at Madison was David Du- 
 bach, who afterwards moved to Missouri. He was architect 
 of the interesting courthouse built in 1854 which is still in 
 use. 45 The stone was brought from the quarries at Marble 
 Hill, overlooking the Ohio River in the southwestern part of 
 Jefferson County. At that time this stone was regarded as a 
 kind of marble, and was referred to and marked as "Indiana 
 marble." By Governor Wright's direction a block of this 
 stone was furnished for the Smithsonian Institute at Washing- 
 ton, the government having requested each state to furnish one 
 block of its building stone to be used in the building. 
 
 An earlier architect and builder at Madison was Mathew 
 Temperly, who, with his sons, William and John, built in the 
 years from 1830 to 1840 many houses that were sound in de- 
 
 i3 Madison Daily Courier, March 28, 1850. 
 "Ibid., March 30, 1850. 
 
 ^Biographical and Historical Souvenir for the Counties of Clark . . . 
 Jefferson . . ., p. 176 (Chicago, 1889). 
 
Stairway in the Shrewsbury House 
 Madison 
 
EARLY ARCHITECTS AND BUILDERS 209 
 
 sign and workmanship. One, built in 1832 for James McKee, 
 was completely restored a century later by its present owner, 
 Mrs. Edward Powell. It is one of the most gracious homes 
 in this fine old town. 
 
 Another good house of those early days that is still well 
 preserved is the one built for Jeremiah Sullivan, who had come 
 from Virginia and who became not long after a member of 
 the Supreme Court of Indiana. 
 
 The Second Presbyterian Church at Madison, completed in 
 1835, was designed in the Greek Revival manner by Edwin J. 
 Peck. The Episcopal Church, excellent in design, completed 
 in 1850, was the work of W. Russell West. 46 
 
 During those years when steamboat traffic made the river 
 towns busy and prosperous, a great deal of good work in 
 wrought iron, and also later on in cast iron, was used for the 
 ornamentation of their buildings. Many examples of great 
 beauty are still to be found. The Neal foundries at Madison, 
 where much of the cast iron was made in a great variety of 
 patterns, were among the largest in the Middle West. 
 
 A few miles down the Ohio from Madison, on one of the 
 high wooded points that afford some of the most beautiful 
 views in America, is the campus of Hanover College. The 
 main college building, Classic Hall, begun in 1853 and com- 
 pleted about three years later, is a fine example of Georgian 
 architecture, modified as to details by the Greek Revival. 
 
 According to the old records of the college, the hall was de- 
 signed and built by Cochran and Pattie, of Madison, who are 
 referred to from time to time as both architects and con- 
 tractors. There were many delays during the period of con- 
 struction for want of funds, and the building cost much more 
 than the original estimates. When it was approaching com- 
 pletion, the board of trustees formally expressed their grati- 
 tude to the architects for forbearance during the periods of 
 pecuniary embarrassments. 47 
 
 The influence of this building, with its walls of brick, soft 
 and mellow in tone, its lovely old woodwork and its general air 
 
 ** 'Madison Daily Courier, February 9, 1850. 
 
 47 Millis, William A., History of Hanover College . . ., pp. 133-36 
 (Hanover, Ind., 1927). 
 
210 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 of dignity and good breeding, must have an important part in 
 the cultural development of those students fortunate enough 
 to spend part of their formative years within its walls. 
 
 The porch at the main entrance, built when the building 
 was being repaired during the administration of President 
 Fisher, does not conform to the original design as shown in old 
 engravings. The building would have greater architectural 
 unity if it were restored to its original form. 
 
 In the towns on down the river are a number of other 
 buildings erected before the Civil War that are examples of 
 good design and good construction. The handsome double 
 house built at Jeffersonville sometime in the thirties for Da- 
 vid Grisamore is most unusual, and the old Weems mansion in 
 the same town, at one time surrounded by large and beautiful 
 gardens, is still an attractive place. 
 
 New Albany has many old buildings, interesting to both 
 the architect and the historian. The market house and the old 
 stone bank were both built before 1840 and have stood for 
 nearly a century with little change. The town also contains a 
 number of old-time residences that are worthy of study. 
 
 Near the little town of Newburgh, on an elevation that 
 commands a view of the river for twenty miles or more is 
 what is known as the "old stone house" built for Gaines Hardy 
 Roberts in 1834. The contractor was John Meinhardt, who 
 had recently come to this country from Germany. He spent 
 three years in the construction of the house. The stone was 
 hauled on barges and in oxcarts from a quarry several miles 
 up the river. The wall thicknesses vary from three feet in the 
 basement to eighteen inches on the second floor. In plan this 
 house is of the center-hall type. In each room is a fireplace, 
 the one in the kitchen having an ample Dutch oven. This has 
 long been known as one of the fine homes of southern Indiana. 
 
 Perhaps the most distinctive house in Evansville is the one 
 that was completed in 1849 f° r Willard Carpenter. At that 
 time it was the most imposing residence in that part of the 
 state. The house is classic in design, reflecting the influence 
 of the Greek Revival and yet with much of the restraint that 
 marked the architecture of the Georgian period. Part of the 
 building material is said to have come from Cincinnati and 
 
EARLY ARCHITECTS AND BUILDERS 211 
 
 Lawrenceburg. The furniture for the house was purchased 
 in New York and sent by water by way of New Orleans. 48 
 
 The architect of the courthouse that was built at Evans- 
 ville in 1852, was James Roquet, who also was given the con- 
 tract for erecting the building. It was of classic design and a 
 very creditable structure. 
 
 During the sixties, an architectural office was opened in 
 Terre Haute by Josse A. Vrydagh. He was a native of Bel- 
 gium, had studied at the Louvain School of Fine Arts and had 
 traveled extensively in both Europe and America. He de- 
 signed many buildings at Terre Haute, including the State 
 Normal School and the Terre Haute House, and was archi- 
 tect for courthouses at Bedford and Mount Vernon, and for 
 some of the buildings at De Pauw University. 
 
 In 1876 he was one of the architects awarded prizes in the 
 competition for the Centennial buildings at Philadelphia. 49 
 The artless official report of this competition stated that "Ow- 
 ing to the difficulty of harmonizing the various designs sub- 
 mitted, the management discarded them all and selected their 
 own engineers," 50 so we have no way of knowing much about 
 the plans made by Mr. Vrydagh, or any of the others. 
 
 Except for a few scattered settlements, such as the one at 
 Fort Wayne, the towns in northern Indiana were established at 
 a later period than those farther south, and their builders were 
 not so much governed by definite architectural styles. After 
 the completion of the Erie Canal many settlers came by water 
 to southern Michigan and northern Indiana. At that time the 
 new Classic Revival was well under way and there may still 
 be found in the northern counties of our state a number of old 
 houses and a few public buildings whose designs were influ- 
 enced by the temples of ancient Greece. 
 
 At Fort Wayne the homes built in the forties for Hugh 
 McCulloch and Judge Samuel Hanna, said to have been de- 
 signed by the same architect, have the inevitable porticos and 
 
 ^History of Vanderburgh County, Indiana . . ., pp. 318-19 (Brant & 
 Fuller, 1889) ; notes by Earl O. Warweg. 
 
 49 Bradsby, History of Vigo County, pp. 981-82. 
 
 ^Quoted in The Story of Architecture in America, by Thomas E. Tall- 
 madge (New York, W. W. Norton Company [1927]), p. 163. 
 
212 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 pediments of the grand houses of that period. The Ewing 
 homestead, built about ten years later, with the more delicate 
 details of the Georgian style, is today an example of good 
 domestic architecture. 
 
 At South Bend, the courthouse completed in 1854, for 
 which Van Osdol and Olmstead were the architects, is an in- 
 teresting small public building designed under the influence of 
 the Classic Revival. When a larger building was required, it 
 was moved back to a new site and is now occupied by the 
 Northern Indiana Historical Society. 
 
 The first college building at Notre Dame was built in 1843, 
 when Father Sorin and six Brothers, of the French religious 
 community known as the Congregation of Holy Cross, came to 
 the Mission of Saint Marys of the Lake. They had little more 
 than a thousand dollars to begin the school. 
 
 Old College is of yellow brick, produced in a kiln nearby, 
 and has a shingled hip roof. The story heights are low and 
 the little building nestles on a hillside overlooking the lake in 
 a very pleasant way. It is without pretense and is a good il- 
 lustration of the value of the influence of poverty in compelling 
 simplicity of design. 
 
 When the Main Building was to be built, an architect was 
 considered necessary and, according to the accounts of the time, 
 a competition was held in which over sixty designs were sub- 
 mitted. The architect chosen was Willoughby J. Edbrooke, 
 who was at one time supervising architect of the Treasury 
 Department. 51 
 
 Distinctive buildings such as many of those that have 
 been described, erected in Indiana during the period brought 
 so definitely to a close by the Civil War, offer a fascinating 
 subject for study. 52 From them and their furniture and furnish- 
 ings we can reconstruct a vivid and illuminating picture of the 
 
 51 From notes by Francis W. Kervick, A. I. A., head of the Department 
 of Architecture, University of Notre Dame. 
 
 "Drawings, photographs, and historical sketches of thirty or more such 
 buildings were made in the Historic American Buildings survey instituted 
 by the federal government in the winter of 1933-34, and forwarded to the 
 Library of Congress. Reproductions of this material have been placed in 
 the Smith Memorial Library of the Indiana Historical Society. 
 
The Shrewsbury House 
 
 The Lanier House 
 
 Examples of Cast and Wrought Iron Work at Madison 
 
EARLY ARCHITECTS AND BUILDERS 213 
 
 customs, tastes, and manner of living of the men and women 
 who developed the state. They were energetic, skillful, and re- 
 sourceful, and their architecture reflected in a creditable way 
 the standards of their times. 
 
 Architecture has been defined as the art of building. At 
 its best it becomes a fine art that combines many useful arts 
 in such a way as to produce a harmonious structure; notable 
 for a pleasing arrangement, well-chosen material, excellence of 
 workmanship, and beauty of design. For art is not an ab- 
 straction. It should be a part of our lives. A creative crafts- 
 man must be an artist in order to give us pleasure by such ev- 
 eryday things as the arrangement of type on a printed page, the 
 satisfying curve of the arm of a chair, or the pattern and color 
 of a beautiful quilt. 
 
 And an architect should be held responsible for such a 
 knowledge and understanding of both design and construc- 
 tion as will enable him to furnish worthy and appropriate set- 
 tings for all of our varied activities and possessions, whether 
 in a monumental public building or a simple cottage home. In 
 order to do this he must inform himself on many subjects and 
 in many ways that he may be a trustworthy adviser to his cli- 
 ents and an inspiring interpreter to the craftsmen and builders. 
 These may seem to be requirements difficult of attainment, 
 but happily there are many such men if care be taken to find 
 them. 
 
 There is always something exhilarating about a well-meant 
 effort to venture from the old ways and establish a new archi- 
 tectural style, whether it be in design, or the use of new ma- 
 terials, or in new methods of construction. At first anything 
 that is new and different will call insistently for attention by 
 its very novelty. When the novelty has worn away it must 
 then be able to stand a pitiless scrutiny, and if it does not have 
 some of those qualities of dignity, serenity, and poise that mark 
 the best work of other generations, it will not endure. 
 
 Experiments that are daring and original may be tried in 
 such arts as music or painting and if the results are not pleas- 
 ing they will be quickly forgotten. But architecture and sculp- 
 
214 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 ture are, perhaps unfortunately, more conspicuous, more per- 
 manent, and impose a greater responsibility on their creators. 
 
 Yet it is a mistake to lament the passing of architectural 
 styles and methods of other days. Good architecture, like any 
 other art, must keep abreast of changing conditions. Good 
 work is always being done. We will always have the need for 
 holding fast that which is good in old methods and traditions 
 while developing the new processes and meeting fully the new 
 demands. That indeed was the spirit of the Renaissance. 
 Now and then a creative genius will be developed who will pro- 
 duce architecture that is of permanent value. Now and then 
 a client will be found who will be satisfied with nothing less. 
 
 A great difficulty is the present habit in most communi- 
 ties of jumbling together a conflicting group of buildings un- 
 related in any way. In other periods the chances were that a 
 building, though ordinary in design, would have the advantage 
 of being surrounded by other buildings of the same general 
 style that were harmonious in scale. Today the general lack 
 of intelligent regulation, either by law or public sentiment, will 
 permit a street or neighborhood to be depreciated in both 
 beauty and value by unrestricted building. 
 
 This condition may be a result of the methods of our in- 
 dustrial age. There was a time when every craftsman knew 
 something about good design, good materials, and good work- 
 manship. Under our present system, work — and responsibil- 
 ity — have been so subdivided and specialized that most of us 
 have an incomplete understanding of even our own products. 
 
 Surely it is desirable for the people of our democratic com- 
 munities to give more thought to the beauty or ugliness of their 
 surroundings, so that they will be qualified to assume a wise 
 control. There should be a more general understanding and 
 appreciation of good architecture, good town planning, and 
 good landscape design. 
 
 During the last half century building methods have been 
 revolutionized. If the early architects of Indiana could see our 
 modern buildings, they would be amazed not only by the size 
 of some of them but by the new materials, the new methods of 
 engineering and construction, and the many new kinds of 
 
EARLY ARCHITECTS AND BUILDERS 215 
 
 equipment that are now regarded as necessary in even a 
 moderate-sized home. 
 
 But as to design — the skillful handling of line and color — 
 the careful study of masses and shadows to create an effect of 
 lasting beauty — the best men of those days would no doubt be 
 well able to hold their own with the best men of today.