7088 E Highway 662
In 1834 the house now known as Old Stone House was built on top of Indian Hill just outside of present-day Newburgh town limits, overlooking the Ohio River. It was built by Gaines Head Roberts, a North Carolina native who arrived in Warrick County in 1810 and prospered by clearing government land and selling the lumber. One of these land grants was signed by President Martin Van Buren.
Built out of sandstone, this house is three feet thick in the basement, two feet thick on the first floor, and eighteen inches thick on the second floor. The stones were brought by river barges and hauled on land by oxcarts to the building site. A dining room and kitchen are situated on one side of the first floor. A parlor and a sitting room are on the other. All four bedrooms on the upstairs level have their own fireplace and cypress woodwork.
In 1859 Judge Gaines Roberts moved out of the home and when he died in 1863 the property passed to his heirs, R.R. Roberts and Eliza (Mrs. Albert) Hazen. It passed to Squire Oliver P. Aiken in 1868 and to his daughter, Luella “Precious” Martin in 1891.
In 1931 the property was purchased by Thomas and Ruth Morton after the previous tenant lost it for non-payment of a debt. At that time it was in disrepair and needed extensive renovations and updating, so the Mortons restored it to its original splendor. A member of the Board of Trustees for the University of Evansville, Morton and his wife gave the house, including its full 70 acre lot, to the University of Evansville in 1969 and it was turned into a guesthouse.
On 30 December 1975 the Old Stone House was added to the National Register of Historic Places.