Mary Birdsall House facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Mary Birdsall House
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 Location in Indiana
Location in the United States
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| Location | 504 NW Fifth Street, Richmond, Indiana |
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| Built | 1859 |
| Architectural style | Italianate |
| NRHP reference No. | 99001155 |
| Added to NRHP | September 23, 1999 |
The Mary Birdsall House is a historic building in Richmond, Indiana. It is also known as the Lauramoore Guest House & Retreat Center. This beautiful brick house was built in 1859 for Thomas and Mary Birdsall. Mary Birdsall was a very important leader in Indiana who fought for women's rights.
The house is built in the Italianate style. It has two stories and stands on the corner of Northwest Fifth Street and Richmond Avenue. In 1927, a group called the Whitewater Monthly Meeting Religious Society of Friends (also known as Quakers) bought the building. They turned it into a retirement home and added more rooms. Later, the property was given to Earlham College. Today, it serves as a guest house and a place for people to relax and learn. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1999 because of its history.
Building Design
Construction of the Mary Birdsall House began in 1859. The bricks used to build it were made in a special kiln located north of the house. The house was finished in 1861. It has an Italianate style with a low-pitched roof.
The architect designed the house with a unique cross shape. Its strong foundations included a stone cellar. The four parts of the cross-shaped building have special brickwork called American bond. They also feature decorative details like brackets and dentils under the roof. Each part of the house has its own staircase and chimney.
The east room, which is closest to Northwest Fifth Street, was likely the most formal area. The first floor of the house was built to be grander than the second. It included three-sided bay windows in both the east and west sections. People say the house design was very modern for its time. It was seen as "healthy" and "freeing." This design reflected ideas about "domestic architecture" from famous writers Catharine Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe. Mary Birdsall had worked with Beecher and Stowe on social changes.
Many years after Mary Birdsall passed away, the house became a retirement home. In 1927, new bedrooms and a staircase were added to the east and north sides of the building.
How the House Was Used
The Mary Birdsall House was a private home until 1927. The Birdsall family owned it until 1899. They had rented it out for some years after moving to Philadelphia. After Mary's sudden death in 1894, the house was sold to Charles and Laura Moore.
In 1927, the Whitewater Monthly Meeting Religious Society of Friends bought the house. Mary Birdsall had supported this group. They turned the house into a retirement home and a place for prayer meetings. They held services in the parlor. The society made the building bigger by adding bedrooms, a kitchen, and backstairs. They had plans to build a separate meeting house nearby, but this never happened.
The Lauramoore Retirement Home became its own company in 1951. It operated until 2010. The company that owned the building then gave it to Earlham College. Today, the Mary Birdsall House is known as the Lauramoore Guest House & Retreat Center. It welcomes visitors to Earlham College.
Why This House Is Important
The Mary Birdsall House was added to the National Register of Historic Places for two main reasons. First, it is connected to important events in history. Second, it is linked to the life of a very important person from the past.
Mary Birdsall lived in this home during the most active part of her work as a political and social activist. She was a strong voice for women's rights. Birdsall was the women's editor for the Indiana Farmer magazine. In 1855, she bought The Lily newspaper from Amelia Bloomer. The Lily was a nationally published magazine. It focused on women's rights, women's suffrage (the right to vote), and temperance. Temperance was a movement to reduce or stop the use of alcohol. Mary Birdsall strongly believed in these causes.
In 1858, Birdsall served as the secretary for the Indiana Women's Rights Convention. This important meeting took place in Richmond. On January 19, 1859, Mary Birdsall made history. She was one of the first three women, along with Mary Thomas and Agnes Cook, to speak to the Indiana state legislature.
The Civil War began in the 1860s. This war took over many of the social issues that Mary Birdsall was working on. However, both Mary Birdsall and Mary Thomas continued to fight for temperance and women's right to vote until Mary Birdsall's death in 1894. Thomas, Mary's husband, was a successful businessman. He was also a strong supporter of Richmond's temperance society. He passed away in 1901.
