Ruthmere Mansion facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Albert R. Beardsley House
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U.S. Historic district
Contributing property |
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Front of the Beardsley House
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 Location in Indiana
Location in the United States
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| Location | 302 E. Beardsley Ave., Elkhart, Indiana |
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| Built | 1908 |
| Architect | Enock Hill Turnock |
| Architectural style | Beaux-Arts |
| Part of | Beardsley Avenue Historic District (ID03000979) |
| NRHP reference No. | 78000030 |
| Added to NRHP | November 28, 1978 |
Ruthmere is a beautiful old house in Elkhart, Indiana. It was once known as the Albert and Elizabeth Beardsley Residence. This three-story mansion is built in the Beaux-Arts style, which is a grand and fancy design. It's one of the most important historic homes in Elkhart.
Built in 1910, Ruthmere is now a public museum. You can visit it and also see the Dr. Havilah Beardsley House nearby. The mansion sits right by the St. Joseph River. Albert and Elizabeth Beardsley hired an architect named Enock Hill Turnock in 1908 to design their dream home.
The Beardsleys named their new home "Ruthmere" to remember their baby daughter, Ruth, who sadly passed away when she was only seven months old. The word "mere" comes from a Latin word meaning "water," which fits because the house is so close to the river. Ruthmere was a busy place for the Beardsley family. They used it for business meetings, family gatherings, and social events.
After Albert and Elizabeth Beardsley passed away in 1924, the house changed hands a few times. Later, in 1967, Robert Beardsley of The Beardsley Foundation bought the mansion. His main goal was to bring it back to its original beauty and open it as a museum for everyone to enjoy. The restoration work took place between 1969 and 1973. In 1978, Ruthmere was added to the National Register of Historic Places, which means it's recognized as a very important historic site.
Contents
Exploring Ruthmere: Inside the Mansion
Ruthmere is a large house with three main floors and a basement. Each part of the house had a special purpose for the Beardsley family.
First Floor: Grand Rooms for Guests
The first floor was where the Beardsleys welcomed their guests. It includes a library, a drawing room, a dining room, and the kitchen area. This floor was designed to impress visitors.
Second Floor: Private Family Spaces
The second floor held the family's private bedrooms and bathrooms. There were also separate rooms for the household staff, known as the service quarters.
Third Floor and Basement: Storage and Fun
The third floor was mostly used for storage. Down in the basement, there was a fun game room. This area also had important working parts of the house, like the boiler room and a laundry room. There's even a secret tunnel connecting the game room to the greenhouse!
Special Materials and Art Inside Ruthmere
The first floor of Ruthmere features beautiful Cuban mahogany wood. You can see pomegranate designs carved into the plaster and wood throughout the house. Pomegranates were a symbol of wealth and good fortune. Many rooms have fancy silk wall coverings instead of regular wallpaper. The ceilings are decorated with amazing hand-painted stencils. Some walls and windows even have hand-painted murals showing scenes from Italy.
Ruthmere also has an impressive art collection that is part of the museum. You can see unique lamps and windows made by Louis Comfort Tiffany. There are also sculptures by the famous artist Auguste Rodin.
Ruthmere's Exterior: Outside the Mansion
The outside of Ruthmere is just as impressive as the inside. It was designed by E. Hill Turnock in a mix of Beaux-Arts and Prairie School styles.
Building Materials and Details
The three-story house is covered with buff-colored bricks from Ohio. It also uses native Indiana limestone. Look closely, and you'll see carved stone details like quoins (corner blocks), capitals (tops of pillars), and fancy window frames. These details make the outside of the house very interesting.
Entrances and Outdoor Spaces
The main entrance has a covered area supported by square brick pillars with carved limestone tops. A large marble patio, called a piazza, stretches across the front of the house and wraps around to the east side. On the east side, there's a porte-cochere, which is a covered driveway where visitors could arrive by carriage or car without getting wet. From the east porch, a covered walkway leads to a greenhouse.
The Garage and Library
To the north of the house is the garage. The second floor of the garage used to be an apartment for the family's chauffeur. In 1980, this space was turned into The Robert B. Beardsley Arts Reference Library. This library focuses on American home architecture and decorative arts. It's free and open to the public by appointment. You can't check out books, but you can use them there and get copies. The library's catalog is even connected to the Elkhart Public Library.
Interesting Facts About Ruthmere
- Albert and Elizabeth Beardsley lived in Ruthmere for 14 years, from 1910 until they passed away in 1924.
- After them, Albert's nephew, Arthur Beardsley, and his wife Stella lived in the house until their deaths in the 1940s.
- From 1945, the Sherill and Helen Deputy family lived in Ruthmere. They raised six boys in the house, who were the first and only children to grow up there!
- In 1969, the Deputy family sold Ruthmere to the Beardsley Foundation. The foundation then worked hard to restore the house and turn it into the wonderful museum it is today for the community.
