50-52 Mattoon Street, Springfield (1872)
Another example of the Second Empire-style row house, built during the initial 1870s development of Mattoon Street in Springfield, is the building at nos. 50-52. The section of the structure to the right is the Eldredge House.
B.F. Farrar built a pair of houses at the corner of what was then Mattoon and Salem in 1873-74. 52 Mattoon was build for Julius A. Eldredge, the furniture dealer who had lived at 43. The pair of houses at 50 and 52 had three floors with Mansard roofs and two story bay windows on both sides. Number 50 was sold by Farrar in 1875 to Sarah M. Leet.
B.F. Farrar and Jessie F. Tapley build bow front row houses at 27 – 35 Mattoon. The architectural firm of Perkins and Gardner was hired to design the houses which are “without a doubt the finest on the street,” as reported in the Springfield Daily Republican in 1974. The houses, completed in 1872, are Mansard style with bow fronts, large octagonal dormers, utility sub-basement, live-in basements just below grade, and elaborate stone stairways. All five houses were promptly sold to respectable Springfield citizens, making Mattoon Street in the early 1870s “one of the most popular street in the city for fashionable residences.” A notable figure of more recent history, Democratic National Committee Chairman Lawrence F. O’Brien, Jr. lived with his parents at 27 during his late childhood.
Shortly after the Farrar and Tapley bow front houses were built, A.B Howe and C.C. Moulton, Contractors, built four houses on the north side of the street. Of the four, only one remains – 34. Numbers 32, 30, and 28 were demolished to build a parking lot. Howe and Moulton sold 34 Mattoon to builder and realtor George O. Kingsbury in 1873. Kingsbury became very important in Springfield as he built and sold over 400 homes by 1887.
From: Windows Into the Past written by Erica I. Walch and Liz Supranovich
Absolutely gorgeous… Very attractive city!