Woodbury-Williams House
1512 North Delaware Street
1906-07
This house with a bowed prostyle portico and colossal columns is one of the few domestic examples of the Neo-Classical Revival Style in the city. The style is more closely associated with larger structures, such as churches or public buildings. Here it adds a note of monumentality to an otherwise more modest house. There are other notable details on the house: the swag and garland motif in the frieze of the entablature; the cartouche with fleur-de-lis above each column and the rusticated entry. Herbert Woodbury built the residence shortly after he moved to Indianapolis in 1905.
Woodbury (1869-1935) was a physician who taught obstetrics at the Indiana Medical School. At this same time he also maintained a private general practice. He became a member of the Department of Therapeutics at Eli Lilly Company in 1927. In 1905 he married Josephine Hyde, daughter of Rev. Nathaniel Hyde, pastor of the former Mayflower Congregational Church. Woodbury lived here until 1910.
Charles N. Williams (1856-1939) took up residence in 1911. A bank director in Crawfordsville, he moved to Indianapolis in 1896 and established C.N. Williams & Co., a private banking firm. This company was absorbed by the Farmers Trust Co., which Williams organized, in 1905. He served as president of Farmers Trust until 1929 when he became Chairman of the board. A graduate of Wabash College, he was elected a trustee of that institution in 1926. Williams remained in the house until his death in 1939.
Old Northside Historic Area Preservation Plan, 1979
