Grouseland: The White House of the West

Between eighteen oh two and eighteen oh four, William Henry Harrison built the first brick house in the Indiana Territory on a knoll above the Wabash River. As the territory's first governor, he needed a residence that projected authority, and Grouseland, named for the grouse that gathered in the surrounding forest, delivered it. The Federal-style mansion held a library, a parlor, a dining room, and six bedrooms.

Harrison ran territorial politics from here from eighteen oh one to eighteen twelve, negotiating treaties that displaced millions of acres from Native nations. He entertained foreign dignitaries and launched his eventual path to the presidency. The Daughters of the American Revolution saved Grouseland and opened it as a museum in nineteen eleven.

It is now a National Historic Landmark, one of the oldest surviving brick structures in Indiana.