INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. | President Benjamin Harrison’s home on a quiet street in the busy city of Indianapolis reflects the elegant style of the period in which our nation’s 23rd president lived and worked. The beautifully restored residence is now open to the public.
The Italianate Victorian design home built in 1875 was an integral part of Harrison’s campaign for the presidency in 1888. Harrison limited his campaign speeches to his home with front porch receptions for a selected group of supporters and the press. Although Harrison didn’t travel the country campaigning, his Republican Party did the usual speeches, rallies, parades and brass bands in his support. The result was incumbent Democrat President Grover Cleveland won the popular vote but was defeated by Harrison in the Electoral College by a vote of 233 to 168. With his election Harrison became Indiana’s only president.
The home and its furnishings offer an insight into the life and times of Harrison and his family. The three story home recently underwent a complete renovation to bring it back to how it looked following Harrison’s term in office in 1893.
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Harrison was a successful attorney in Indianapolis when he purchased a double lot on the west side of Delaware Street at an auction in 1867. Then in 1874 he began construction of his new 16 room home that included a carriage house, brick driveway and landscaping for a total cost of $24,818.67. The Harrison family, wife Caroline and their two children, Russell and Mary lived in the house except for the periods 1881 to 1887 when Harrison was in the US Senate and 1889 to 1893 when Harrison was president. After his presidency ended in 1893 Harrison returned home a widower. Caroline died in the White House the year before.
After returning to Indianapolis Harrison made several changes to the home including the addition of an English-Regency front porch. Electricity was added and the plumbing was updated. In 1896 Harrison married his wife’s niece, Mary Lord Dimmick and the couple had a daughter Elizabeth in 1897.
President Benjamin Harrison died in the home on March 13, 1901. Mary and Elizabeth continued to live in the home until 1913 when they moved to New York. The home was then occupied by several different renters over the years until 1937 when the Arthur Jordan Foundation bought the house and furniture. The foundation used the home as a girl’s dormitory for students from the Jordan Conservatory of Music. The home was sold to the foundation with the condition it would also be a memorial to Benjamin Harrison.
When the music school moved to another location the foundation opened the Harrison home to the public. Then in 1964 the United States Department of the Interior named the home a National Historic Landmark. Two years later the Jordan Foundation created the President Benjamin Harrison Foundation Inc. to maintain and operated the home.
The three story landmark recently underwent a $400,000 renovation thanks to a Save America’s Treasures grant. The home is now furnished with many of Harrison’s paintings, furniture and artifacts from his life and presidency. The carriage house behind the home not only has some of the items once stored there such as carriages and sleighs but the building also has varying displays including one featuring presidential First Ladies and another on Women’s Suffrage.
Tours of the Harrison home are given by knowledgeable guides who lead visitors through 10 rooms in the home including the third floor ballroom when it is not in use. All floors are accessible by elevator.
