The Peters-Mergedant House was built in 1934, and has ever since been hanging out on East. Indiana Street.  Now this house isn't any normal house, it's a historical landmark, and as of today it has been moved to a new resting place!

Tess Harper
Tess Harper
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If you aren't sure why this house is significant, here's what the Peters-Margedant House Preservation Project has to say on their facebook page:

In the early 1930s, we know Frank Lloyd Wright was beginning to think of designs for homes that the common man could afford. He gave these the name Usonian, and we might recognize these as the first ambitious small house designs of the modern era.

Evansville's Peters-Margedant House, built by Wes Peters in 1934, predates Wright's first recognized Usonian house by 2 years, and features many of the same characteristics that would eventually be standard in Usonian design, including a flat roof, central masonry core and fireplace, horizontal board and batten siding, use of local materials, large overhanging eaves, windows just below the roof line, large floor to ceiling window/doors in an open great room looking out onto a courtyard, plain street-side profile, and relatively hidden front door.

This early prototype gives insight into the evolution of the Usonian style and makes this small, humble house - and Wes Peters' work - nationally significant.

This morning the home was moved from it's original place on East Indiana Street and has been moved to it's final resting place on the campus of the University of Evansville for all to see!

Tess Harper
Tess Harper
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Annnnndd it's off to it's new home!

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