Watton Inn

Description:	Drawing of the Watton Inn in North Terre Haute by Juliet A. Peddle, Terre Haute Artist and Architect. WATTON INN, NOW THE PHILLIPS HOMESTEAD, NORTH OF TERRE HAUTE. DRAWING BY JULIET A. PEDDLE, TERRE HAUTE ARTIST AND ARCHITECT.The WATTON INN was one of the early inns along the Lafayette road. The present house is located about three miles north of Terre Haute on U. S. 41, where it is intersected by Haythorne road and is now owned by Mrs. R. B. Phillips, who, With her son and his family, live there.The original house was built by Mr. William Hall, who came directly to this locality from England. Tradition places the building of the house in the forties and this is probably not far off when checked with the deed records which show that the land was purchased by Mr. Hall in 1844. The family says a small log house was built first and the large one a little later. An inn, spoken of sometimes as Watton Cottage, was operated here for some years by the Halls. In 1877 the house was purchased by Mr. J. N. Phillips.It is a curious circumstance that Mrs. R. B. Phillips, who owns the house now, is the granddaughter of Mr. Hall, but that she acquired the property from her husband whose father had purchased the property in the seventies. She has early associations with the house through her mother and later ones through her own experience.As I understand, the main part of the house has not been essentially changed in later years. Some details have been modified, however, and another room now used for a kitchen has been added. The old kitchen which is on the south side still shows scars where hot pots and kettles were set on the floor and burned into it. The cooking was originally done in a large open fireplace in this room. The present long front porch was a later addition and the original solid door with sidelights was changed to the present glazed door. If the house was built before 1850, as I believe, it seems probable that the gable over the center of the front of the house was not part of the original structure, but I may be mistaken in this. The original house was like so many others built at this period- designed without windows in the north or south end walls, and the spaces beside the fireplaces used for closets. Several windows have been added in these walls now.The older houses which have survived outside of the towns are many of them fortunate in retaining their original setting, and this house is among those that time has been kind to in the growth of the early dooryard trees into fine big trees today giving it an effective setting.
Origin:	01/01/2005
Contributor(s):	Peddle, Juliet, 1899-1979
Source:	http://indianamemory.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/rose/id/839
Collection:	Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Logan Library
Rights:	http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/
Copyright:	Copyright Undetermined
Subjects:	Architectural drawings Architecture Hotels Houses Architecture Domestic Life

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