Selma and the House of the Singing Winds
~ by Julia Pearson
“ Selma in the Garden” by T. C. Steele.
In the spring of 1907, Theodore Clement Steele made a trip to Brown County to look for property for a studio home. He preferred a tract of 60-plus acres about a mile and a half off the main road leading to Bloomington. In April he returned with his bride-to-be, Selma Laura Neubacher. The road was muddy with shelves of protruding rock. To make it easier on the horses, they climbed through the underbrush on foot. Theodore told Selma,“ My dear, if you think you can manage to live in this wilderness, we will build our home here— on this hill.”
With the land purchased and local builder, Bill Quick, hired, Steele stayed in a one-room squatter’ s cabin on the property to oversee construction of the house, while also working on a portrait of William Lowe Bryant.
Selma gathered items for the house design and made portfolios of stencils and drawings. Her eye for textiles and decorative arts gave her a distinctive flair.
Selma wanted a cellar built under the house— rather than a hillside pit. The studio, living and dining rooms were one, 20 by 30 feet with a beamed ceiling 14 feet high. Selma’ s fireplace was in the middle of the long south wall. Except for the plastering, all the work was done by Quick and his two assistants. One of the carpenters, Ogle, built the fireplace and his father built the throat of the chimney. Payroll was $ 17.50 per day for three carpenters, two grubbers, and two teams for hauling supplies.
On August 9, a simple wedding uniting Theodore and Selma was followed by a train ride from Indianapolis to their hilltop home. The bride wore a soft gray jacket suit of silk crepe and colorful hat. Arriving in Bloomington, they took a wagon to Belmont Hill where their neighbor, Mrs. Parks, asked them into her kitchen. The neighbor’ s sons took the luggage to the Steeles’ new home and stabled the horse for them. Under nightfall, the Steeles walked the final quarter mile in wedding clothes. Forest trees edged their sleeping porch.
Water was had from a rain barrel and hauled from a well in Belmont, then stored in the cellar. The kitchen had no storage, with doors and windows
40 Our Brown County March / April 2023