About the Wylie House
Built in 1835, Wylie House was the home of Indiana University's first president, Andrew Wylie, and his family. Today Wylie House is owned and operated by Indiana University as an historic house museum recreating the Wylie home prior to 1860.
The house is distinctive and unusual for south-central Indiana, a blend of Federal and Georgian styles of architecture more characteristic of southwest Pennsylvania, where Wylie was born and raised. It is one of the few pre-1840 structures remaining in Bloomington.
Wylie House contains an outstanding collection of early to mid-19th century American furnishings, including many Wylie family artifacts. A large collection of Wylie family letters and personal papers are housed in University Archives.
The mission of the museum is to preserve and study the house, artifacts and documents and through them to interpret for the public our local history and domestic heritage as it is embodied by the early Wylie home.
Wylie House Restoration Projects
A major restoration of Wylie House took place in the early 1960s that concentrated on the structure of the house. Between 2001 and 2010 we worked to complete the interior decoration of the museum in order to give visitors a more accurate impression of early 19th century life in south-central Indiana. The walls were all painted using period appropriate colors and techniques; 19th century style window dressings were added; antique furniture, some that originally belonged to the Wylies, was restored and/or reupholstered and added to the house; the exterior trim of the house was painted and so on. Below are a few photos of some of these improvements.
1960s Restoration
When Rebecca Wylie died in 1913, her three remaining children decided to sell the house. Theodorus, or Dory, was by that time a widower and no longer lived in Bloomington. Margaret, or Maggie, was a widow living in Pittsburgh, Kansas near one of her sons. Louisa, who had lived with her parents since 1884 when she was widowed, wanted to move to Arlington, Massachusetts to be near her daughter and grandchildren.
In 1915, Dr. Amos S. Hershey, a professor of political science at IU bought the house from the heirs. He and his wife, Lillian, made the first significant changes to the house as far as we know. Besides modernizing the kitchen and bath room and putting in a furnace, they enclosed the second storey porch, making it into a sunroom and they removed the ground floor pantry and screened it and the ground floor front porch. They also added a pedimented awning with brackets over the front door and a small slanted roof over the east door into the kitchen.
In 1947, the widow Mrs. Hershey sold the house to IU. The trustees agreed to let her live in the house another 4 years, until 1951. From 1951 until 1959, IU Press was housed in the home. Then, starting in 1961, IU undertook a complete restoration of the house. The intent was to restore the house to its original configuration when it was built in 1836. The photographs in this digital exhibit document what the house looked like just prior to that restoration and the process of restoration.
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The Wylie House before the restoration, in the late 1950s. This shot of the front and western side of the house taken during the summer shows how overgrown the property had become. In this photo the has already been removed. -
Front view of the Wylie House taken in about 1960. You can see several of the changes that the Hershey family made, including the fountain in the yard, the pedimented awning above the front door, and the screened-in porch to the right. -
This image, also from about 1960, shows the east side of the house and screened-in porch prior to restoration. The door to the porch is where the restored pantry will be located. -
At the time of the restoration, it was believed this back porch had been added years after the house was built. Based on that belief, the decision was made to remove the porch. -
Two men re-bricking the second-story back porch door. -
The upper-level back door re-bricking process, taken outside from the ground. -
The completed re-bricked wall above the back porch. -
The central brick wall of the house had to be taken entirely down and rebuilt. This image shows the upper hallway with that wall removed and the plaster stripped from the walls. The main staircase from the first floor is in the foreground with the upper hall banister. The door leads into the northwest bedroom. -
This image shows workmen rebuilding the central brick wall on the west end of the dining room. The main staircase is just visible behind the newly rebuilt wall. -
The entire exterior of the house was repointed to correct deteriorating mortar joints. This image shows a close up of that process. -
These two workmen are shown repainting the west and south faces of the house. -
This is an image of the room above the kitchen, with the stair banister just visible on the left side. Workmen had to rebrick above or below many of the windows of the house and this image shows what that entailed. -
To restore the front porches, the roof was first supported and then the entire porch structure was removed. -
Another view of the front porch during restoration. -
Looking west at reconstructed front porches with new framing in place. -
Looking east, from the lower portion of front porches during reconstruction. -
The upper and lower pantries were put back as research had shown they existed before the Hershey's alterations. This image shows the framing for those rooms in place. -
The east wall at the ground level, where the reconstructed pantry is located. Two workmen are adding siding or clapboards. -
The kitchen before plastering, facing south toward the doors. -
The house after restoration, about 1965. In 2004, the exterior trim color was changed from white to buff with dark green shutters.
The front of the house during the restoration. The trellises and awning have been removed, and restoration of the porch just begun.
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Other Projects
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When the house was restored in the 1960s, the exterior trim was painted white. By 2001, the white paint was badly deteriorated and peeling so the decision was made to repaint using more appropriate colors. -
In 2004, funding was found to pay for the exterior painting, and work was begun that summer. -
With dark green shutters and doors and buff colored window trim, the house took on a more distinguished look. -
In January 2005, following a 16 inch snow, a thaw, then heavy rains, part of the limestone retaining wall that runs along Lincoln Street collapsed. Fortunately it was semester break so there were few cars parked on the street and hardly any pedestrians walking this way, so no one was hurt. -
With so many limestone buildings and walls on campus, Indiana University employs some talented stone masons. Kenny Wagner and Tim Souder, pictured here, were two of those who spent weeks rebuilding the retaining wall. -
John Thom is a talented local resident who specializes in historic paint techniques and murals. He became interested in Wylie House when he visited in 2001 and said he would very much like to help us with the interior decoration. The first project he worked on was stenciling the walls in the parlor. Here, he’s getting ready to cut the last stencil for that room. Behind him you can see some of the other stencils he cut and used in this room. -
Here is a view of the parlor with the stenciling completed. John Thom also did the faux marble painting on the wooden fireplace mantle in this room and one other. -
In 2004, John Thom returned to apply a faux wood graining to the woodwork in the dining room. This was another popular paint technique in the 19th century. -
In 2009, John Thom came back to Wylie House to paint a scenic mural on the walls of the entry hall. We are fortunate to have a number of paintings and drawings that depict portions of this community in the 19th century and John used some of those for his inspiration. Here he and his assistant Isiah Killion are working on the portion of the wall that depicts the first IU campus. -
The completed mural transformed the entry hall and it helps our visitors envision what it might have looked like here 180 years ago. -
Dr. Hermann B Wells, former president and chancellor of IU and an avid antique collector, gave many antiques to Wylie House. This wing chair was a gift from him that we had upholstered in a documented 19th century reproduction fabric. -
A great-granddaughter of Andrew and Margaret Wylie donated this rocking chair that belonged to her great-grandmother in 2004. -
These four women have made about a dozen quilts for the museum in the last 10 years. Left to right are Diamond Mather, Ellen Pittman, Virginia Miller, and Marjorie Clayton. We are indebted to them for their work allows us to store our antique quilts away from damaging light and dust. -
Here are two of the quilts made for the museum by the Wylie House quilters. We know that the women in the Theophilus Wylie family made quilts and it is likely that Mrs. Andrew Wylie and her daughters did as well, although we do not know that for certain. -
Here are two more quilts, made completely by hand by the Wylie House quilters. -
We used documented reproduction fabrics for our window treatments, all of which were fabricated by Beverly Hafemeister of Vintage Valances in Cincinnati, who specializes in 19th century window treatments. -
Another window treatment made by Beverly Hafemeister of Vintage Valances. We have no idea what kind of window treatments Margaret Wylie had when she was mistress of this house, so we elected to use documented styles from her period. Here in the sewing room we chose a documented reproduction fabric from the 1830s and paired it with a plaid. -
Beverly Hafemeister of Vintage Valances found this style in an 1850s Godey’s Ladies Magazine. It was described as the perfect window dressing for a young man’s room, so we used it in the boys’ bedroom with a documented reproduction fabric. -
This simple yet elegant window treatment is another that was made by Beverly Hafemeister of Vintage Valances, using a documented reproduction print in linen. We liked it so well that we had her make the same style in a different print for one of the bedrooms. -
Brown County, Indiana weaver Sarah Noggle has made three rugs for the Wylie House. The first was an area rug for use in the entry hall. More recently, she made this stunning runner for the main stairway. It’s what is called a Venetian stripe, warp-face rug, made from wool that should wear well for years to come. -
Here’s another Venetian stripe wool, warp-face rug made by Brown County weaver, Sarah Noggle. Most carpets in the 19th century were made like this: woven in strips that were then sewn together to form a room-sized carpet.
Here is the Margaret Wylie rocker, newly upholstered and sitting in the parlor.
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