Demas Deming House

Description:	Drawing of the Demas Deming house by Juliet A. Peddle, Terre Haute artist and architect. Demas Deming home, which has many associations with early Vigo County. Drawing by Juliet A. Peddle, Terre Haute artist and architect.The Demas Deming house stood on the southeast corner of Sixth and Walnut streets, where the Y. M. C. A. is now located. In later years, after it was occupied by his daughter, Mrs. Wheeler, it was usually called the Wheeler house, by which name many people today will identify it.Demas Deming was born in Connecticut and came to Terre Haute in 1818, where he engaged in merchandising and bought up large tracts of land. He served as an associate judge and was active in banking circles most of his life, being the first president of the State Bank of Indiana when it was organized in 1834.In 1841 he selected a site way out east of town in the middle of a corn field, his daughter told me, on which to build his house. It was a well built house and was constructed from plans and specifications which are still in existence. These plans were found among some old papers after Mrs. Wheelers death and placed in the library for their historical interest. They are dated October 7, 1841; and on the last page of the document the builders, Madison and Chamberlain, wrote their receipt dated September 19, 1842, for the twenty-eight hundred dollars set forth in the specifications as the contract price of the house.There were extensive alterations made in the early sixties, and at the time the house was razed it did not give the impression of being as old as it actually was on account of these changes. I measured up the house just before it was taken down and the main portion of it was identical in plan with the original though it had been extended in the rear. Mrs. Wheeler said that the bathroom was added about this time and I believe it was supposed to be the first one in Terre Haute. They had to send to Cincinnati for the fixtures and when completed it was something to be proud of! The drawings show different porches and cornice treatment from what was on the house as we knew it, and I believe these changes must have been brought about when the other alterations were made.I have chosen to illustrate the house as it was originally built rather than as it was in more recent years and have constructed the perspective from the early drawings. I have been a little handicapped, however, that only the north elevation and the first floor plans were considered necessary in preparing the original plans. The front porch is shown in plan and the detail is taken care of by the following line in the specifications west portico to be of the best style, with fluted columns, and steps to ascend on either side, and not less expression in finish than the one in front of the building now occupied by Mr. Krumbhaar.The design of this house is quite characteristic of the day in which it was built, and it is an interesting example of the better type of house in this period.The property was continuously in the hands of the Deming family until after Mrs. Wheelers death when the house was taken down (1938) and the site was bought by the Y. M. C. A. for their new building, which now occupies the site.
Origin:	01/01/2005
Contributor(s):	Peddle, Juliet, 1899-1979
Source:	http://indianamemory.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/rose/id/822
Collection:	Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Logan Library
Rights:	http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/
Copyright:	Copyright Undetermined
Subjects:	Architectural drawings Architecture Houses Deming, Demas, 1788-1865 Architecture Domestic Life

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