Wylie House facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Andrew Wylie House
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Wylie House
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 Location in Indiana
Location in the United States
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| Location | 307 E. 2nd St., Bloomington, Indiana |
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| Area | 0.1 acres (0.040 ha) |
| Built | 1835 |
| Architectural style | Federal |
| NRHP reference No. | 77000013 |
| Added to NRHP | April 18, 1977 |
The Wylie House is a very old house built in 1835. It is located in Bloomington, Indiana. This house was once the home of Andrew Wylie. He was the very first president of Indiana University. He lived there until he passed away in 1851.
Later, in 1859, Andrew's wife, Margaret, also passed away. Then, Theophilus Adam Wylie bought the house. He was a professor at Indiana University and Andrew's half-cousin. His family lived in the house until his wife passed away in 1913. Today, Indiana University Libraries takes care of Wylie House. It is a historic house museum that teaches us about these two families.
Contents
The Wylie House: Home to Indiana University's First President
Andrew Wylie's Family Life (1835-1859)
In 1828, Indiana College needed a president. They asked Andrew Wylie to take the job. He was the president of Washington College in Pennsylvania at the time. Wylie accepted the offer. In 1829, he moved to Bloomington, Indiana. He came with his wife, Margaret Ritchie, and their children.
Wylie became the first president of Indiana College. He was also the third teacher there. (The college later changed its name to Indiana University in 1838.) For a few years, the Wylie family rented homes. Then, in 1835, Andrew Wylie built this house. He had bought the land near the college a few years earlier. Andrew, Margaret, and ten of their twelve children lived in the house. They lived there at different times between 1835 and 1859.
What the Wylie House Looked Like
The Wylie House is a two-story building made of brick. The front of the house has a special brick pattern called Flemish bond. It was built in a mix of Georgian and Federal styles. This was a bit old-fashioned for the 1830s. At that time, the Greek Revival style was becoming popular.
One reason for this style might be where the Wylies came from. Southwestern Pennsylvania was influenced by northern Virginia. That area still used Georgian architecture a lot. Also, Wylie designed his house based on a home in Pennsylvania. That home was inspired by a house in Newport, Rhode Island. The "widow's walk" on the roof of Wylie's house shows this connection.
Life on the Wylie Farmstead
The house was the center of a 20-acre farmstead. This means it had many other buildings around it. A map made by a Wylie family member in 1954 showed these buildings. They included a smoke house, a large barn, a fancy log chicken house, and a carriage house. There was also a two-story building for storage.
These extra buildings show all the work done at the house. People would butcher and smoke meats. They would gather wood for winter. They also preserved food and washed clothes. It was hard to find hired helpers in frontier towns like Bloomington back then. So, the Wylie family often did most of this work themselves.
Theophilus Adam Wylie's Family Life (1859-1913)
In 1837, President Wylie invited his half-cousin, Theophilus Adam Wylie, to teach. Theophilus taught mathematics, natural philosophy, and chemistry at Indiana College. In 1838, Theophilus married Rebecca Dennis. They moved to Bloomington. They lived in rented houses until 1859. After Andrew's wife passed away, Theophilus bought the house. He also bought 5 acres of the land from Andrew's family.
Theophilus Wylie's home was often very busy. Six of his eight children grew up in the house. (Two children passed away before 1859.) Many other family members also lived with them or visited for long periods.
Changes in Bloomington and the Wylie Household
During this time, Bloomington began to change. It went from a small frontier town to a growing college town. Besides family, the Wylies also took in two boarders. These were usually students or young professors from the college.
Also, servants became part of the household. There were no servants during Andrew Wylie's time. One servant was Lizzie Breckinridge. She was an African American woman whose mother was a former slave. Lizzie came to work and live with the family in 1856 when she was thirteen. She stayed with them until she passed away in 1910.
Science and Technology at Wylie House
The Wylie House was a place for new scientific ideas. Theophilus started experimenting with photography. This was soon after the daguerreotype process was invented in 1839. Many of the photos he took at the house are still around today. He also used a telescope on the roof to look at the stars.
In 1876, Theophilus installed the first telephone in Indiana. He built it using plans from a professor at the University of Pennsylvania. The phone connected the house to a college laboratory. Theophilus was an active professor at Indiana University until 1886. He then became an emeritus professor until he passed away in 1895. Rebecca Wylie continued to live in the house until she passed away in 1913.
Wylie House Museum: A Glimpse into the Past
After the Wylie family, Dr. Amos Hershey bought the house in 1915. He was a professor of political science at Indiana University. He and his wife Lillian made the first big changes to the house. They updated the kitchen and bathrooms. They also added a furnace. They enclosed the second-story porch. They also removed some pantries and screened in the front porch.
In 1947, Herman B Wells, who was president of Indiana University, helped the university buy the house. Dr. Hershey's wife continued to live there until 1951. From 1951 to 1959, the house was home to Indiana University Press. Then, between 1960 and 1965, the house was carefully restored. The goal was to make it look like it did when it was first built. They tried to remove everything added after 1835. However, they accidentally removed a small back porch that is now believed to have been original.
Today, the building is known as the Wylie House Museum. It is a historic house museum that shows how the house looked before 1860. The museum used a list of items from 1859 to help furnish it. It has a mix of items that belonged to the Wylie family and other old pieces from that time.
