Bryan House residence of University presidents, campus history

Herman B Wells stood in the doorway of his dining room at the Bryan House and watched as Elaine Finley, director of presidential events, gave an informal tour of the room.  

He hadn’t been expecting a house guest and practically ran down the stairs when he heard the doorbell ring. Even now, he eyed the guest, unsure.  

“He’s our attack cat,” said Finley as she glanced down at the cat, called Hermie for short, as he stood in the door frame of the house where his namesake once lived.  

The William Lowe and Charlotte Lowe Bryan House, called the President’s House until 1970, sits atop a hill on the east side of campus amidst accompanying gardens and academic buildings. It has been the home of every IU president, except Joseph Lee Sutton, since it was built in 1924.  

Although current IU President Michael McRobbie and his family don’t live in the house full time, Finley said McRobbie and IU First Lady Laurie Burns McRobbie are often at the house and will stay there for an extended period of time in late October.  

“Except for sleeping here, they live here,” said Finley, who added the First Lady’s offices are on the second floor of the house.  

After acknowledging Hermie, Finley turns and gestures to a breakfast room overlooking a green area of campus and said the Bryans, lifelong residents of the house, planned this room based on the way the light and shadows fell.

President Emeritus John Ryan, who attended IU, said he remembered Wells inviting incoming freshmen and graduating seniors along with their families for a luncheon in the house’s gardens. Years later, Ryan decided to revive the tradition during his presidency, hosting 3,000 or more students at each reception.  

“It could get a bit crowded,” Ryan said with a laugh, quickly adding that not all 3,000 students were at the house at one time, but throughout the afternoon.  

In addition to students, other guests attend events at the house and its gardens.

Waking up one Saturday morning, Ryan said he heard a different sound and looked out his bedroom window into the gardens to see about a dozen people, a few with flutes and drums, who had assembled in the gardens for a wedding.  

“I thought it was a wonderful way to use the grounds – I just wished someone told me so I could be prepared,” Ryan said.

Devin McGuire has been the Bryan House’s gardener since 1988 and said the different administrations inspire his plant choices.

The Myles Brand administration’s goal was for the University to be “America’s New Public University,” so to keep with the American spirit, McGuire added plants that were red, white and blue. That made it easy for him to transition to the Adam Herbert administration, which brought a return to cream and crimson, although he said some of the shrubs turned out to be more yellow in color than cream.

McGuire said the current administration is characterized by the recession, so he used plants that are more sustainable.

“There’s not a lot of money for landscaping, so I’m finding ways to do with less and use less resources,” McGuire said.

Finley said she tries to make the house welcoming for students, who come to the house for a variety of events, including a philosophy class taught by former First Lady Peg Brand and events with various sports teams such as the tennis, the rowing and the football teams.   

She added that sometimes carolers from the music school stop by during the holidays. And, according to an April 2003 article in the Indiana Daily Student, student carolers were once shocked to be met at the door by President Brand and his guest, musician John Mellencamp.  

The second and third floors of the house are the living suites of the first family as well as their guests, such as Sen. Richard Lugar, Yo-Yo Ma, Jane Pauley, Eleanor Roosevelt and Robert Frost.   

“Many, many shoes have gone through this house,” Finley said.  

Before Ryan and his family moved into the Bryan House, the house was reserved only for special events and guests. During this time in the late 1960s and early 1970s,
graduate students Bill and Shirley VanKeuren, previous residence managers of Tulip Tree Apartments, lived in the house with their young son Randy on the second floor and were given the role of upkeep and preventing vandalism.

Yet rumors began to circulate that the house was dangerous and unfit to live in.

“The only thing that could refute that would be to move into the house, so we did,” said Ryan. “We did everything we could to assure living on campus was not that different than living off campus.”

Currently, the first floor of the house, which is open to the public and maintained by the University, has dark oak hardwood floors and is filled with antiques. One such antique is a grandfather clock that was a gift to President Bryan from the class of 1905 because he was so persnickety about punctuality, Finley said.  

According to Bryan House pamphlets, William Lowe Bryan would schedule his appointments with faculty and staff to last exactly 10 minutes.

Walking along the side of the house and onto the house’s original front lawn, McGuire stopped to sit on a bench and then popped up to inspect a nearby plant. Satisfied, he stood up and looked out on the gardens that roll down the hill toward Sycamore Hall and Ballantine Hall.  

“Isn’t it nice you have a creek on three sides? Kind of like an island,” he added, dreamily.

Finley said that having the president live so close to the students and other campus buildings has been an added benefit.  

“Just say Bryan House and everyone knows where it is,” she said. “It’s not unlike the White House.