NEWS

Brookville Heritage Set in Stone

One of Brookville’s oldest homes is poised for new use by an organization devoted to history. But first, members will have to raise money for the restoration.

Bergin House Brookville

A Home for History

Nestled among hills between two forks of the Whitewater River in Franklin County, Brookville was a well-established town before Indiana became a state. The town enjoyed a brief boom as a manufacturing and trading hub on the Whitewater Canal beginning in 1836, as canal boats transported goods along the 76-mile waterway between Hagerstown and the Ohio River.

Today, one of town’s oldest homes is poised for new use by an organization devoted to history.

Brookville’s National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) Twin Forks Chapter bought the Bergin Stone House for use as a local chapter house and meeting space for other civic organizations.

Around 1829, William and Henrietta Wheat built a sturdy stone I-house near an area that would a few years later become known as “The Basin,” where boats on the newly constructed Whitewater Canal were loaded and unloaded.

Paul Deutsch, a former boarder at the home, bought the property in 1875 and lived there with his wife until 1951. The house served as the family seat for generations — Deutsch’s daughter married in the home, and gave birth to a son there in 1919. The boy, Paul Bergin, eventually took ownership, maintaining it to his grandfather’s high standards.

Brookville's Bergin House, c.1975.

Brookville’s Bergin House, c.1975.

Established in 1921, the Twin Forks DAR chapter will now officially have a place to store ninety-seven years’ worth of documents and projects, organized and easily accessible to the public.

Years of vacancy left the structure in bad shape, so Indiana Landmarks helped the chapter secure a $7,500 grant from the Efroymson Family Fund of the Central Indiana Community Foundation to study the home’s condition. The group will use the findings to prioritize rehabilitation work at the house.

Chapter members have already begun raising money for the restoration. They plan to sell small paintings of the Stone House as their first fundraising project. Each artwork will include an easel for display, with an authentication certificate that recognizes the purchaser as a contributor to The Stone House Restoration. The canvases are hand painted by chapter members at the historic Hermitage art studios of T.C. Steele and J. Ottis Adams in Brookville. The artwork will soon be available at various stores in Brookville, as well.

To learn more about the project, contact Indiana Landmarks’ Eastern Regional Office, 765-478-3172, east@indianalandmarks.org.

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