The Wylie House was built in 1835 by Andrew Wylie and his wife, Margaret, and their 10 children. Originally the homestead was comprised of 25 acres. Two sons were already grown and out of the home by the time they built the home in Bloomington, Ind., and when Andrew became the president of Indiana University.

Before then, he had served as president of Jefferson College and Washington College. Andrew wore many hats; in addition to helming the university, he taught and was a minister and a farmer. IU began first as a seminary and later became a college.

Diana Lambdin, volunteer docent at Wylie House, provided a tour in mid-March of this historic farm homestead to travel blogger and co-creator of the Mid-West Travel Bloggers Sara Broers. Broers, who hails from Mason City, Iowa, was in town to see the sights.

Lambdin explained, “When this house was built, this mansion was then in the countryside, on the outskirts of town; this was a farmhouse.”

A brochure about the homestead shows the changes the second Wylie family saw after their arrival: “Professor Theophilus Wylie, with his wife, Rebecca, and family, saw immense change during their stay as the second owners. Arrival of the railroad to Bloomington in the mid1850s revolutionized land transportation and eventually transformed American agriculture.

“Time no longer spent on growing food became available for leisurely activities. Hybrid seeds, gas-powered farm machinery and chemical fertilizers prevailed. Treasured heirlooms were forgotten. No longer commercial farmers, many became extinct, resulting in the loss of valuable horticultural genetic material.”

While the house is set up as close to period as they can get, the furnishings are not all original; however, Lambdin said, “We have journals from Theophilus A. Wylie III, grandson of Professor Theophilus Wylie, who drew the map from memory in 1954.” The elder Theophilus was Andrew’s cousin.

The map depicts where the outbuildings like the chicken house, smokehouse, lye hopper, sundial, cattle well, asparagus patch and sunken hothouse were located. Today at Wylie House there is a big garden growing heirloom plants from which seeds are saved and sold, passing on the heritage of those early plants.

The seeds represent plants the Wylie families would have used while they lived there between 1836-1913. They would have saved their seeds from year to year. These seeds are non-pollinated, non-hybrid vegetable, herb and flower varieties.

Andrew Wylie died in an 1859 accident after chopping wood. “This was a small town back then,” Lambdin explained about the lack of medical services to save him.

After that, the house was purchased and lived in by cousin Theophilus and his family, until 1913. Rebecca lived to be almost 101. The house went into public hands and served as a number of things before returning to the university and becoming a house museum.

When Rebecca’s great-grandson Milton Bradley Wylie passed away in 2004, he passed on both money and heirlooms to the house that is now a museum. One of the most astounding heirlooms is a Christmas cactus that is more than 100 years old – and still blooming!

Besides the house there is a barn that is reconstructed from a barn that was moved to the site. The barn serves as a visitors center with bathrooms, and a few farm equipment items on display. This is also where quilters work, events take place and the offices are located.

Museum tours are available Tuesday-Saturday 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Tours are free and operated by the Wylie House Indiana University Libraries. For more information, call 812-855-6224.

Readers with questions or comments for Cindy Ladage may write to her in care of this publication. Learn more of Cindy’s finds and travel in her blog, “Traveling Adventures of a Farm Girl,” at http://travelingadventuresofafarmgirl.com