The White Plaster House

One morning, a bit over a year ago, I was on my way to an appointment on the east side of town. While the morning light was cold and bright, I was still not prepared to see a gleaming white cottage at the corner of East 10th Street and Arsenal Avenue. In fact, in a neighborhood made up primarily of wooden frame, vinyl-sided homes, the smooth white stucco walls were a surprise.

Later, I looked for information and found the home was built in 1886 by William T. Prosser, a plaster craftsman who immigrated to Indianapolis from England in 1870. He was employed as a plasterer and sculptor by the Indianapolis Terra Cotta Company, so it is not unusual that he used his home to display his skills. In fact, a description describing Prosser's home/studio stated "This house shows an interesting use of detail, especially in the decorated plaster ceilings, unusual in a house of this size."

These images, from the 1958 LOC Historic American Buildings
 Survey, show ceiling details from the home's interior.
Photos by E. Roger Frey 

From what I could find, the home has had few owners during its life. One of them was F. Max Howard, who fell in love with the house when he was a boy and vowed to own it one day. When he returned from fighting in WW II, he saw the house was for sale. Though in poor condition at the time, he and his partner, John P. Sieberling, a music teacher, bought the home and worked over the next fifty years to restore and maintain it. Its current owner is a former student at the Herron School of Art and Design, who has also done work to the home to both update and to retain its unique appearance. In fact, Prosser House now has its own Facebook page.