This Old Barn
"...It stands in its austere gray beauty, weathering without rotting," wrote Michael Duckwort in about 1972, describing the barn for an English Assignment. Duckworth's family owned the barn, built by his mother's great-great uncle. His report provides valuable insight to the barn's history.
The hand-hewn beams of a historic Monroe County, Ind., barn will form the interior of the Wylie House Museum Education Center, scheduled to be completed before the end of the year.
Located next door to the Wylie House Museum, the center will provide space to host classes and events, as well as a reading room, small gift shop, and administrative offices.
Built sometime between 1863 and 1869, the barn is about 36 feet square. Its poplar boards and posts, now weathered and gray, will be dismantled, treated, and reassembled. In many ways, visitors to the new center will feel as if they are inside the original barn.
“Our goal from the beginning,” says Jo Burgess, director of the Wylie House Museum, “was not only to expand the educational potential of the museum, but also to try to recapture the feeling of the original homestead. The Wylies, like others in Bloomington at the time, were working farmers.”
Wylie House Museum is the home of Indiana University’s first president, Andrew Wylie, and members of the Wylie family lived there for approximately 80 years. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the museum is now owned by IU and administered by the IU Libraries.
In 2004, Morton Bradley, Jr., a great-grandson of Theophilus Wyllie, left his estate to the Wylie House Museum, the Lilly Library, and the IU Art Museum. His gift to the Wylie House makes the construction of the Education Center possible.
Indiana University purchased the Wylie House in 1947. Herman B Wells was then the university president, and he knew the house held great potential as an educational resource. Wells envisioned the home as a teaching museum and a lasting tribute to IU’s humble roots.
Copyright © 2009 The Trustees of Indiana University