Morris-Butler House
Encyclopedia
The Morris-Butler House is a Second Empire-style house built in 1864-65 in Indianapolis, Indiana
. It is part of Old Northside Historic District
of Indianapolis. It is preserved as a museum home by Indiana Landmarks. The house contains many original features and pieces of furniture in Victorian & Post-Victorian styles.
The house was used as an artists' studio, gallery, and apartments between 1957 and 1964.
Eli Lilly
bought the house in 1964 when it was in danger of being destroyed by the construction of Interstate 70
. Eli Lilly lived a block away from the house when he married his first wife in the 1920s. He had known Florence Butler and was fond of the house. He provided $22,500 for the Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana (now Indiana Landmarks) to purchase the house.
The restoration work included repairing warped floors, cleaning and repainting the darkened brickwork, and adding a new slate
roof. The house was opened to the public in 1969. Indiana Landmarks staffs the house with tour guides, coordinates further restoration, and hosts educational and cultural events.
Indianapolis, Indiana
Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
. It is part of Old Northside Historic District
Old Northside Historic District
Old Northside is a residential neighborhood near downtown in Indianapolis, Indiana, and located between 12th and 16th streets, and Pennsylvania and Bellfontaine Streets...
of Indianapolis. It is preserved as a museum home by Indiana Landmarks. The house contains many original features and pieces of furniture in Victorian & Post-Victorian styles.
History
John Morris, the son of an Indianapolis settler, had the house built by architect D.A. Bohlen in 1864. The house is located in what was then a suburb of Indianapolis, an area now known as the Old Northside. Morris lived in the house with his family until financial difficulties in the 1870s. In 1878 he sold the house to Noble Butler, a bankruptcy lawyer. Noble Butler lived in the house with his wife and seven children. His daughter, Florence Butler, lived in the house until she died on January 7, 1957. The makeup of the neighborhood at that point was quite different from before, with most of the homes being occupied by low-income renters and many homes suffering from neglect.The house was used as an artists' studio, gallery, and apartments between 1957 and 1964.
Restoration as a historic house museum
Eli Lilly (industrialist)
Eli Lilly was a pharmaceutical industrialist and philanthropist from Indiana, United States.- Business :Born in Indianapolis, Indiana, Eli Lilly was President of Eli Lilly and Company. He was named for his grandfather, Colonel Eli Lilly, who founded the family business...
bought the house in 1964 when it was in danger of being destroyed by the construction of Interstate 70
Interstate 70
Interstate 70 is an Interstate Highway in the United States that runs from Interstate 15 near Cove Fort, Utah, to a Park and Ride near Baltimore, Maryland. It was the first Interstate Highway project in the United States. I-70 approximately traces the path of U.S. Route 40 east of the Rocky...
. Eli Lilly lived a block away from the house when he married his first wife in the 1920s. He had known Florence Butler and was fond of the house. He provided $22,500 for the Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana (now Indiana Landmarks) to purchase the house.
The restoration work included repairing warped floors, cleaning and repainting the darkened brickwork, and adding a new slate
Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. The result is a foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering...
roof. The house was opened to the public in 1969. Indiana Landmarks staffs the house with tour guides, coordinates further restoration, and hosts educational and cultural events.
Notable Styles & Features
- Wooton deskWooton deskThe Wooton desk is a variation of the Fall front desk. It is the embodiment of the phenomenon of conspicuous consumption which swept over moneyed society in the United States at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, and was described by Thorstein Veblen in his book The...
- Jacob CoxJacob CoxJacob Cox was a landscape and portrait painter in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. Several of his paintings are in the Morris-Butler House. He is also known for his paintings of Indiana Governors James B. Ray, Noah Noble, David Wallace, Samuel Bigger, Joseph A. Wright, and Henry S...
Paintings - Tower (used for ventilation)
- Early Version of Central Heat
- Charles EastlakeCharles EastlakeCharles Locke Eastlake was a British architect and furniture designer. Trained by the architect Philip Hardwick , he popularised William Morris's notions of decorative arts in the Arts and Crafts style, becoming one of the principal exponents of the revived Early English or Modern Gothic style...
Chairs