Charles L. Shrewsbury House
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| Charles L. Shrewsbury House | |
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| (U.S. National Historic Landmark) | |
,_Madison_(Jefferson_County,_Indiana).jpg/235px-Captain_Charles_L._Shrewsbury_House,_301_West_First_Street_(High_&_Poplar_Streets),_Madison_(Jefferson_County,_Indiana).jpg) |
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| Location: | Madison, Indiana |
| Coordinates: | Coordinates: |
| Architect: | Costigan, Francis |
| Architectural style(s): | Greek Revival |
| Added to NRHP: | 1994 |
| NRHP Reference#: | 94001190 [1] |
| Governing body: | Private |
The Charles L. Shrewsbury house is located at 301 West First Street in Madison, Indiana. It is a private historic house museum.
[edit] History
The Charles Shrewsbury House also known as the Shrewsbury-Windle House is the 1848 Greek Revival home of Charles Shrewsbury, a salt-barge riverboat captain, flour manufacturer and pork merchant. Shrewsbury was also the mayor of Madison. The house was designed by Francis Costigan. The Shrewsbury house has twelve rooms, thirteen fireplaces and a fifty-three step spiral staircase. The floor to ceiling windows are thirteen feet tall. A man on horseback could easily step through the enormous front door.
Per Robert Windle, "In the interior of the Shewsbury house, the spiral staircase is undoubtedly Costigan's most spectacular achievement. The staircase rises from the center of the front hall to the top of the house and is freestanding and self-supporting. The weight is concentrated on the bottom step and is carried by the end of the steps and the curved drum which is made up of four layers of laminated wood, each about a quarter of an inch thick. The steps are pine, painted white to resemble marble, and the railing is cherry. Where the curved railing becomes tangent to the wall, there is a saucer or depression in the plaster that follows the curve of the handrail so that knuckles do not hit the wall. Today as then, the staircase serves as an air conditioner for the house - the air rising to the top and escaping out of the attic windows."
Francis Costigan, the architect of the Shrewsbury house and the nearby Lanier Mansion, was one of America's outstanding architects of the mid 19th century. He was born in Washington, D.C. about 1810 and worked as a carpenter builder in Baltimore prior to moving west and settling in Madison in 1837. Madison was growing prosperous, and Costigan designed and erected residences and other buildings for it's leading citizens. In 1851 Costigan left Madison for Indianapolis. All of his work in Indianapolis has been razed. Other extant examples of Costigan's work in Madison include the Costigan house and St. Michael's Catholic Church.
[edit] References
- ^ National Register Information System. National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service (1994-04-19).
- 99 Historic Homes of Indiana by Marsh Davis and Bill Shaw, copyright 2002 pages 229-231.
- Historic American Buildings Survey in Indiana, edited by Thomas M. Slade, copyright 1983, pages 72,73. ISBN 0-253-32741-5
- The Early Architecture of Madison, Indiana by John T. Windle and Robert M. Taylor Jr., copyright 1986, page 84. ISBN 0-87195-004-9
[edit] External links
- Pictures of other buildings by Francis Costigan - http://www.b-levi.com/research/arch/costigan/index.php
- Link to Historic Landmarks of Indiana - photo of spiral staircase - http://www.historiclandmarks.org/noted/99-04archive.html
- Link to Information on Shrewsbury House - http://www.oldmadison.com/homes/shrewsbry.html
- Link to National Park Service Web Page - http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=2183&ResourceType=Building
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