Shadowwood, Colonial Revival estate in Palmyra Township, Knox County, Indiana, United States.
Shadowwood is a 2+1⁄2-story, five-bay Colonial Revival brick dwelling built in 1917 for Col. Eugene C. Wharf in Palmyra Township, Knox County, Indiana. It has a side-gabled tile roof, and its south facade carries a two-story portico with a second-story sleeping porch. The grounds also hold a 1917 pump house, a 1917 carriage house and a chicken house from about 1945.
The house was built in 1917 for Colonel Eugene C. Wharf on property that was once part of the Rose Hill Farmstead, originally acquired from Robert B. Patterson. This land transfer marked the creation of the estate on ground with earlier agricultural use.
Colonel Eugene C. Wharf, a Spanish–American War veteran, disliked the local name Rebel Hill and in 1917 had Shadowwood recorded at the Knox County courthouse instead. The earlier name came from a rumor that the Knights of the Golden Circle met in the dense forest on the hill before the house was built.
The property includes outbuildings from different periods, with a pump house and carriage house dating to 1917 alongside a chicken house built around 1945. Visitors can explore these additional structures as part of the overall grounds experience.
The Sigma Pi fraternity, founded at Vincennes University in 1897, moved its international headquarters here in 1963 and stayed until 2003. It spent $11,500 in 1962 on heating, plumbing and electricity, and turned the 1917 carriage house into a lodge for its traveling consultants. Judge Curtis Shake suggested the 1961 transfer, which Stella Wharf approved.
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