Vigo County Historical Society

Historical Treasure Article

Historic Treasure of the Week - March 2, 1986
By Frances Hughes
Vigo County Historical Society

Looking back
Peddle pencil drawings at Rose-Hulman exhibit

When an exhibit of pencil drawings of local historical buildings opens this month at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, it will be a tribute to the late Juliet Peddle, outstanding local architect.

The exhibit of Peddle's drawings of early homes, commercial buildings, schools and churches of Vigo County from the collection of Shelton and Muriel Hannig will open Jan. 27 and be on display for a month.

It will be open to the public from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. each Monday through Friday on the second floor of Moench Hall on the Rose campus.

These drawings were purchased by the Hannigs from the estate of Juliet Peddle, who died Sept. 7, 1979. They are all mounted alike and present an unusual recording of a part of the history of Vigo County. Some of the buildings date back to the early 1800s shortly after Terre Haute was settled. All were constructed before the Civil War.

Very few of the buildings are still standing.

It is appropriate that this collection be shown at Rose-Hulman for Miss Peddle's father, John Peddle, was professor of machine design at Rose Polytechnic Institute for many years. He was also acting president of the school from 1928 through 1930.

Also, Juliet Peddle was the architect for the remodeling of the old gymnasium and library of Rose to provide the auditorium in 1949, of the old student center into the present Templeton Administration Building in 1969 and of the early remodeling of Old Main, now Moench Hall.

Peddle was a very conscientious and methodical collector of factual material about the history of Terre Haute and Vigo County. In the 67 drawings in the exhibit will be one of the original Vigo County Court House, built about 1818 on the site of the present Court House, and those of nine other commercial buildings and schools.

Build in 1857 and 1858 on the site of St. Anthony Hospital, which was recently torn down,
was the Terre Haute Female College, later called Covert College, then Western Female College, then St. Agnes School and later St. Anthony Hospital.

There is a drawing of the Sibleytown School or Old North School, built in 1851 at Third and Locust streets and named for the Sibley family, early settlers in Terre Haute.

A picture of the first Academy Building at St. Mary-of-the-Woods is also to be exhibited.

The pencil sketch of Buntin's Hotel shows one of the foremost hotels in the state when it was built about 1852 on the east side of South Third Street (then called Market Street) between Ohio and Walnut streets.

Other renderings of business building show the Weatherwax Tavern, Watton Inn, Terre Haute and Richmond Passenger and Freight Station, Judge Mack's Office and the first Terre Haute House.

It was soon after Terre Haute was settled that churches were started here. Represented in the drawings are these early churches: Asbury Chapel, Baptist Church, Christian Church, Old Otter Creek Union Church, St. Joseph's Church, Universalist Church, Old German Methodist Church, Bethesda Church, St. Stephen's Episcopal Church and early Parish Church of St. Mary-of-the-Woods.

Memorial Hall, the Preston House and Markle House, three of the oldest building in the county, are still standing, as are two other houses. The Ray Green Jenckes house, Sixth and Crawford streets is still there, as is the John C. Ross house on Butternut Hill. Depicted in the drawing by Peddle is the original Ross house, built about 1835, which was occupied by three generations of the Blake family.

Farrington Grove was the site of the Farrington House, built in 1841 on what was then the farm of James Farrington, one of the early Terre Haute settlers. The house was called "Woodlawn."

There is a drawing of the house which Chauncey Rose built about 1854 and lived in during the later years of his life. It was on the site of the ISU University School (former Laboratory School).

The Dowling house, built by Thomas Dowling at North Sixth Street and First Avenue before 1854, later became the Rose Home for Aged Women.

Where Davis Park School now stands was the site of the Davis house, where W.G. Davis and his large family lived. The Welsh family formed a musical group of singers that performed in this area.

On Ohio Street, where the AT&T Company office is located, was the home of Herman Hulman, grandfather of Tony Hulman. It was built about 1850. During WWI, the house was headquarters for the Red Cross and for two years after that was a clubhouse for the B&PW Club, which had a
tea room there.

Another Hulman, Theodore, had a home at 824 South Sixth Street, where the Terre Haute Nursing Home is now. It was built in 1854.

One of the stations of the "underground railroad," used for smuggling slaves north, was the Malcolm Steele house, built in 1820 six miles south of the city. It was said to be the second brick house in Honey Creek Township and the third one in Vigo County.

Where the Masonic Temple was built at 212 North Eighth Street was the location of the home of Daniel W. Voorhees, a prominent lawyer and politician. the house was built in 1859.

"Spring Hill," which later stood on a hill south of the city on South Twenty-fifth Street was the home of Col. Richard W. Thompson, at one time Secretary of the Navy. It was built between 1822 and 1825.

There are pictures of four Gilbert homes in the collection and other houses in the drawings include names of other early settlers.

Juliet Peddle was one of only two registered architects in the State of Indiana at one time. She was graduated from King Classical School in 1918, from the University of Michigan in 1922, studied art at the Art Institute of Chicago and at Berkshire, Maine, received her Illinois architectural registration license in 1926 and her Indiana license in 1939.

She was employed by several architectural firms, including Miller, Vrydagh and Miller, and Miller and Yeager in Terre Haute and by the Commercial Solvents Corporation.

In 1939, she opened her own office and continued in her profession until 1974. Among her local projects were the Ben Blumberg, Dr. Alexander Cavins and Dr. Alan Rankin residences, Animal Building of Commercial Solvents, Crawford School, Medicenter, Social Security Building in Meadows Center and remodeling of First Congregational Church and Ben Franklin School.

The Historical Museum of the Wabash Valley, 1411 S. Sixth St., is open
from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday through Friday.