Legg House (Bloomington, Indiana)

Legg House
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Front of the house
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Location	324 S. Henderson, Bloomington, Indiana
Coordinates	39°9′49″N 86°31′39″W / 39.16361°N 86.52750°W / 39.16361; -86.52750
Area	0.3 acres (0.12 ha)
Built	1848
Architectural style	Greek Revival
NRHP reference No.	01000359[1]
Added to NRHP	April 12, 2001

The Legg House is a historic former farmhouse in Bloomington, Indiana, United States. Built in the middle of the nineteenth century, it has experienced a range of uses, culminating in its present status as an Indiana University office building. After a period of deterioration, it was restored to its original condition, and it has been designated a historic site.

A farm occupied the present site of the Legg House at least as far back as 1820. At that time, it lay on the edge of the city; the nearby Third Street was the only road that connected Bloomington to the outside world. Landowner George M. Legg built the original portion of the house in 1848,^[2] using a variant of the Greek Revival style of architecture.^[1] Its construction employed local materials: the walls are built of handmade bricks, laid on a foundation of locally mined limestone, and supported with poplar beams that were cut in the Bloomington vicinity.^[3] At the time of construction, it was a small house: just one story tall, it was divided into only two rooms. In later years, the house was modified significantly: a porch and frame wing were added during the 1870s, and elements throughout the house were covered during the twentieth century with elements such as drywall.^[4][5]

By the early 1870s, the house had passed out of Legg's possession, being occupied by the parents and grandparents of William Lowe Bryan.^[2][4] At this time, it still lay at the city's edge, but the location became more central after 1883: in that year, a fire destroyed the buildings of Indiana University at Seminary Square, and the trustees chose to move the campus to property immediately northeast of the Legg House.^[4] Within a few years of the university's move, the house was converted into a boarding house, a status that it held when visited by Bryan, by that point the president of the university, in 1890.^[3] This use continued into the late twentieth century; even after the university purchased the house in 1964, it was employed as student housing.^[4] Insufficient funding ensured that the house was not properly maintained; it was boarded up in 1993,^[2] and the university initially considered demolishing the structure before preservationists and city officials began to negotiate for its preservation.^[4]

In April 2001, the Legg House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, both because of its place in local history and because of its historically significant architecture.^[1] Later that year, as a result of this designation,^[6] the city and university were awarded a grant of $27,000 from the historic preservation division of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources,^[3] and renovation began in 2002. During its nine years of vacancy, the house deteriorated greatly; although the original woodwork of the interior was in satisfactory condition, the exterior had suffered such damage as broken windows, a collapsing porch, and rotting window sills. Among the elements restored by Greenfield company Advance Restoration were the foundation, the brick chimney, and the many wooden walls; workers removed both old paint applied by previous owners and significant amounts of graffiti applied by recent vandals.^[4] Today, the Legg House is actively used by Indiana University, serving as the location of the university's housing office.^[7]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Legg House (Bloomington, Indiana).

• University website