BELMONT — Sometimes, a bit of a balance has to be struck between preserving a place exactly as it was and changing with the times.
When painter T.C. Steele and wife, Selma, moved to Brown County in 1907, the bare ridgetops were just starting to recover from deforestation. Now, the opposite sorts of views are what Brown County is known for.
Yet, much of their House of the Singing Winds and surrounding property near Belmont has been restored close to the way the Steeles had it.
In recent years, gracious private donors have adopted several of the gardens that Selma sculpted out of the Brown County clay, helping to bring them back to their original beauty. There’s still need for support on a couple of those projects, including an orchard and trellises, said Cate Whetzel, program developer at the site.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]Later this month, a new building will start to rise on the vast property once occupied by one of Brown County’s first and most famous artists.
A two-story visitor center will go up on the site of one of the Steeles’ old guest houses, near the current office at the state historic site, Whetzel said.
In addition to a place for visitors to rest between tours, it’ll serve as the gift shop, the new office and art classroom space — which will allow the west wing of the Steele house to be restored and opened to visitors. It also will allow the “small studio” to be converted into a workspace for visiting artists.
It also bears noting that the new visitor center will have flush toilets and sinks with running water — a first for the property, which has been served by pit toilets.
“Not having running water and bathrooms, it’s been preventing us from really being able to offer the kind of wedding experience that people expect in the 21st century in this country,” Whetzel said.
“People have a reasonable expectation that there will be a place to wash their hands — and we will now, which is really phenomenal.”
The rugged charm of the property was something the Steeles both struggled with and appreciated.
Theodore Steele, age 60, moved to the wooded, abandoned farm from the city with hopes of becoming a recluse, with his new bride, age 37. The first year he lived in a “squatter’s cabin” while the house was being built, and occasionally regretted leaving the “hermitage” that his Indiana artist friends had stayed in Brookville, author Rachel Berenson Perry wrote in her book, “T.C. Steele & the Society of Western Artists.”
While living at the property from 1907 to 1926, Steele produced a body of work that not only caught the attention of other city artists longing for a more serene setting, but also propelled him into national recognition as an impressionist landscape and portrait painter. He is credited with starting the movement that molded Brown County into the Art Colony of the Midwest.
Selma also was trained as an artist, but creating a garden oasis became her greatest contribution, knowing how important it was to her husband.
In 1908, returning from an art show trip to Indianapolis, she wrote, “There remained no longer a question or hesitancy in our minds that this home emerging out of a wilderness would provide the painter with the best possible conditions for his self-realization.”
Whetzel credited Indiana’s Bicentennial celebration last year with helping to shine a light on the state’s historic treasures such as this one.
“It’s a tremendous gift, and really wonderful to see how much the site means to people, and we’re proud of that and those people who want to spend their money this way,” she said.
