Farrington House

Description:	Drawing of the Farrington House on South Fifth Street Below Park Street, by Juliet A. Peddle, Terre Haute Artist and Architect. Farrington House on South Fifth Street Below Park Street, Drawn by Juliet A. Peddle, Terre Haute Artist and Architect.The Farrington House stood on the east side of South Fifth Street between Park and Farrington Streets .The house was built by Mr. James Farrington, one of the earlier settlers of this community.Mr. Farrington was born in Massachusetts in 1798 and when a young man, came west, opening a law office in Vincennes in 1819. In 1822 he came to Terre Haute and at first practiced law, but later in 1834 retired from the firm of Farrington, Wright and Bookins to go into banking and later pork packing. He was the first cashier of the State Bank and the senior member of the firm of H. D. Williams Co., pork packers.In Vincennes Mr. Farrington had married Miss Harriet Ewing. Their daughter, Mary, married Capt. Richard Law of the U. S. Navy, and their son, George, who lived here in Terre Haute, was associated with the Vandalia Railroad for many years. George was born in 1840 at the Terre Haute House where the family was living at that time. Within a year they moved to their new home which was being built on Mr. Farringtons farm south of town. The place was called Woodlawn.The house almost centered on Fifth Street, which stopped at Park Street until many years later. The approaching to it was from Park.Originally the house had the traditional colonial plan, a center stair hall with two rooms on each side upstairs and down. It was well built and furnished with equal care. In 1847 a beautiful pier-glass was ordered and sent out by wagon from Pittsburgh. It was in the house at the time a serious fire broke out and burned out the entire interior. The fire could not be stopped, but it progressed so slowly that a great many things were saved, among them the pier-glass, which was reset when the house was rebuilt. Today it hangs in the home of the Gilberts and Laws on Gilbert Avenue.This fire occurred about 1855. Mr. Farrington set about immediately to rebuild his home, utilizing the brick outer walls which were still sound. In rebuilding, he decided to eliminate the west side and to construct what sometimes used to be called a single house, a stair hall with rooms on one side only instead of both sides. A smaller building stood nearby on the lot and this was moved up and added to the rear or south side of the main house. This contained the kitchen and pantry and a bedroom downstairs and some bedrooms upstairs. To this wing also were attached the washhouse and smoke house, all-available from a brick paved yard. The above illustration represents the rebuilt house as it appeared after Fifth Street was cut through.I am told there was a fine deep cellar under the whole house, provided with a brick floor and arranged to store foodstuffs, each kind where the temperature and moisture conditions were best suited to preserving it.The house always belonged to the Farrington family and it was only after Mr. George Farrington died in 1920 that it was taken down.Farrington Street, which was to the south of the house, and the Farrington apartments which are located near the site of the old house, are the only reminders we have today that the old home once stood there. Mr. Farrington for nearly thirty years was general agent of the Vandalia Railroad here (later the Pennsylvania), and was a close associate of Mr. W. R. McKeen, Charles M. Wheeler, Forest Kendall, and Ben and W. R. McKeen Jr., all of the Pennsylvania official family. lea, the lea being what are now the landscaped hills of our largest city park.
Origin:	01/01/2005
Contributor(s):	Peddle, Juliet, 1899-1979
Source:	http://indianamemory.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/rose/id/846
Collection:	Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Logan Library
Rights:	http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/
Copyright:	Copyright Undetermined
Subjects:	Architectural drawings Architecture Houses Farrington family Farrington, James, 1798-1870? Architecture Domestic Life

Further information on this record can be found at its source.