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KEYSER-READ-HOLT |
In the late 1850's Hiram T. Keyser, a mason
and brick-layer, came to help construct a number of village buildings. The
brick house and the small stone houes next to it were almost certainly built
by him. Stephen H. Tyler, a talendted carpenter, bought the brick house in
1873. Probably many of the distinctive features belong to him, in particular
the ornaments in the lintels on the street side, the bay window, and the
superb porch. The columns of the porch are reputed to have been made from
logs floated down the river. This porch is the only remaining example in
the village, but half a century ago there were two similar porches in the
village-all probably the work of Tyler. The two-story original part of the
house was magnificently restored by Mrs. Eleanor Read, (Mrs. Henry Holt's
mother), in 1947 rnaking this Elsah's first 20th century restoration. Mrs
Read added the one story brick wing in 1960. |
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ONETTO-BRADLEY HOUSE |
Built in the late 1850's by the Onetto family,
this house was transformed between 1880 and 1882 into a magnif icent home
by Enos Doron, owner of the flour mill on the river front. At that time he
added the cupola and the bracketed cornice. After 1905 the building served
as an inn, first under the Worlhey family and later under Principia. The
balcony has been changed since this picture was taken in 1931. In 1972 Edward
and Paula Bradley extensively restored the interior of the building as their
home. |
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PARSONAGE-PITCHFORD HOUSE |
The Elsah Methodists erected their parsonage
in 1859, fifteen years befeore the church across the street. The brick portion
of this home has had very few changes over the years. Michael and Mary Ann
Pitchford began restoring the house in 1977, adding the carriage house and
rear wing. |
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REINTGES-SCHWARZ HOUSE |
Peter Reintges, who built this house about
1853, was one of Elsah's first settlers. He was a stone mason and built a
number of Elsah's first stone houses, His first home was on the hill immediately
behind the house itself. When Peter Reintges died in 1863, Christian Loehr
married Mrs. Reintges and raised the Reintges children. Loehr turned this
building into a hotel and bar, while he completed Reintges'brick home across
the street (where the Maple Leaf Cottages are today).
For many years the building had a door where one of the front windows is
today, and the living room was the bar. A lease dating from the early 1880's
tells us that the saloon was equipped with eleven chairs, three tables, an
ice cooler, an ice chest, and two faucets, along with mirrors and a clock.
The interior contains a stone floor in the hallway and a remarkable vaulted
cellar, a reminder of the days when the old building was the "Hotel
Elsah." |
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Text from Elsah: A Historic Guidebook by Charles B. Hosmer,
Jr. and Paul O. Williams, 1967. Used with Permission from Historic
Elsah Foundation |
