Known for his “Santa Houses,” nativity scenes and other holiday depictions built completely by hand, Richard Peterman’s works have been featured throughout Crawfordsville and Montgomery County for nearly three decades.
Ranging from life-sized scales to miniature models, the 82-year-old craftsman continues to create works of art at his Crawfordsville home for family, friends and businesses, the latter of which continue to display his crafts in downtown windows to this day.
“I’ve been doing it for about 25 years probably,” Peterman said. “I’ve made three of them since the first of the year, so it takes about three months [to build one]. I’ll work on it not every day; I’m retired so I just do it when I want to.”
Peterman and wife Eleanor, who died in January 2019, raised three daughters together in Waynetown where he oversaw utilities for 25 years. Before that, the 1958 Crawfordsville High School graduate worked for Crawfordsville Electric Light & Power.
Some of his duties with CEL&P included decorating downtown Crawfordsville during the holiday season each year.
“They had the old street lights like they’ve got now, the old-fashioned ones, they had them back then too,” Peterman said. “We used to hang the greenery on them. I’d come home smelling like pine.”
But his talents extend well beyond that of miniature homes and holiday decorations. Daughter Dee Holbein said she and her sisters were raised to invest in their families by investing in their homes, learning from the example of her mother and father’s many construction projects along the way.
“We were very fortunate when we grew up; Mom and Dad always taught us the most important thing is family. That’s the biggest gift you can give,” she said. “They taught us a lot about, I would say, appreciating your home. You work hard so you just put it right back into it.”
Holbein is just one of an extended Peterman family that is quickly approaching 50 members: Three daughters and their husbands, 22 grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren — with one on the way.
And every one of them is able to adorn their homes with Santa Houses built by their father, grandfather and great-grandfather.
“The family is what it means the most to. We just love having this, and he’s so gracious to share with us,” Holbein said. “You know how that is, when you have something that’s made special for you. He also makes tables; he’s made every one of the grandkids a harvest table or a sofa table, whatever it is they wanted, so they have that and they’ll always remember Grandpa doing that. A toy is a toy ... but when you always have things made by Grandpa, that’s the special thing.”
By Wednesday, heathcliff’s storefront windows will again display one of Peterman’s most recent miniature holiday homes for the holiday season.
And the honor has never escaped Peterman.
“I look back and this and think, ‘How did I do all that stuff,’” he wondered. “It’s amazing. I can’t believe I did all that.”
