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Thom, foreground, and Killion in the Wylie House.

A remarkable new view of Bloomington can be seen only from the Wylie House Museum. On its walls.

Local decorative painter John Thom is transforming the interior entryway of the museum, painting on its walls depictions of the house, its neighborhood, early campus buildings, and the Bloomington courthouse as they may have looked in the mid-nineteenth century.

Constructed in 1835 for Indiana University's first president, Andrew Wylie, the house is all that remains of what was once a 20-acre homestead. Andrew’s cousin, Theophilus Wylie, purchased the property in 1859. His sketch of a nearby farm served as one of several references for the mural.

“We know the Wylies would not have depicted their own neighborhood on their walls, but this is a wonderful teaching tool,” says Jo Burgess, director of the museum. “It’s a way for us to help a visitor step back in time.”

Burgess points down the hallway. “If you look down that way,” she says, “that’s where you would have seen the courthouse. And if you look that way, that’s the direction of the Campbell farm.” She points to the gray barn Thom has painted near the front door.

“We’re so surrounded now, by apartments and other buildings, it’s hard to imagine how rural it was when the Wylies lived here, ” Burgess says. Her goal is to give visitors a sense of the property in the mid-nineteenth century. The Wylies, like others in Bloomington at the time, were farmers.

Burgess and Thom consulted about the content of the mural and how it should be presented. They agreed that it should take inspiration from the primitive style popularized by Rufus Porter, a well-known muralist of the period. A green and golden landscape wraps around the entire hallway, and its blue sky extends up the stairs to the second floor. Elegant wispy trees frame doorways. Residents and passersby, now just chalk outlines, will soon bring the buildings to life.

For the background Thom used milk paint, a treatment made from milk protein, lime, earth pigments, and clay fillers that produces historically accurate colors.

Thom, owner of Florentine Finishes, a Bloomington-based decorative painting firm, has previously stenciled the museum's gold and red parlor, transformed a wooden mantel in the downstairs bedroom to look like marble, and painted faux wood graining in the dining room. The mural, which he is creating with his assistant, Isiah Killion, is a culmination of sorts, Burgess says.

“This was my vision,” says Burgess, who has been furnishing and transforming the museum for nearly 10 years. Progress, she says, has been incremental. “I knew how much there was to do. Now, finally, I feel so proud and pleased about the house, and the impression it will leave on visitors.”

Wylie House Museum, 307 E. Second Street,  is operated by the Indiana University Libraries. Open March through November, Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Admission is free.

For more information:  http://www.indiana.edu/~libwylie/mural.html