Lanier Mansion

About this property

The Lanier Mansion is a historic house located at 601 West First Street in the Madison Historic District of Madison, Indiana. Built by wealthy banker James F. D. Lanier in 1844, the house was declared a State Memorial in 1926. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1994 as one of the nation's finest examples of Greek Revival architecture. James Franklin Doughty Lanier was one of Madison's pioneers moving to the city in 1817 where he later practiced law. In the 1830s, he turned to banking and finance becoming the president of the Madison Branch of the State Bank of Indiana and a major investor in Indiana's first railroad. With his financial success, Lanier commissioned in 1840 prominent local architect Francis Costigan to design and build a residence for the sum of $25,000. Costigan designed the mansion in the Greek Revival style, popular in the mid 19th-century, drawing from the pattern books of New York architect Minard Lafever. Construction of the house used materials that were manufactured nearby, or on the premises, including the brick, limestone and timber, largely tulip poplar, that was plentiful in the area. The mansion was completed and occupied in 1844. Lanier only lived at the property for seven years before moving to New York City where he helped start the investment firm Winslow, Lanier & Co. In 1861, his son Alexander was given the deed to the mansion and moved into the house. Alexander Lanier modernized the house by adding amenities such as a coal furnace, gas lighting, a toilet and bath tubs. Alexander also developed large, elaborate gardens containing two greenhouses that employed several professional gardeners. The mansion would remain within the Lanier family until 1917, when James' youngest son Charles donated the site to the Jefferson County Historical Society. In 1925, the society, with the family's blessing, gave control of it to the state, which promptly opened it publicly as a historic house museum. Since the 1990s, archaeologists and historians have worked at the site with much of the research funded by The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America and other grants. Their work has helped with the ongoing restoration of the mansion to its appearance in 1844. Archaeologists have discovered the locations of the former dog kennels, poultry house, greenhouses, cisterns, the original Lanier home (which faced Elm Street) and the carriage house, which was reconstructed in 2003 on the original foundation. The Lanier Mansion is sited on the sloping banks of the Ohio River with views of the hills of Kentucky across the river. Built in the Greek Revival style, the layout of the main block of the house is a near perfect square of approximately 54 feet (20 m) by 53 feet (20 m), with a service wing projecting from the east side that extends the facade by 36 feet (10 m). The house encompasses approximately 13,500 square feet (1,250 m2), with just under 9,900 square feet (920 m2) of livable space.

Location

Categories

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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