Creole House

About this property

The Creole House is a historic residence in the village of Prairie du Rocher, an old French settlement in present-day Randolph County, Illinois, United States. Built at the end of the eighteenth century and later expanded, the Creole House is the last survivor in Illinois of its type of vernacular architecture, and it forms an important part of the built environment of a portion of the Upper Mississippi Valley that possesses an unparalleled connection to the French settlement period. French settlers founded Prairie du Rocher circa 1722. At least twelve surviving houses in the village were built in the eighteenth century, including the Meilliere House, which was constructed in 1735. One of these is the Creole House, built around 1800, which was constructed in the French Colonial style by an unknown English-speaking immigrant from the eastern United States. The builder was one of Illinois' earliest American settlers; only about eight hundred Americans lived within the bounds of the present state of Illinois in 1800, including just one hundred within present-day Randolph County. From 1830 until 1848, it was owned by William Henry, a local miller, although starting in 1845 it was home to the family of E.C. Hansbrough. In 1848, the property passed into the ownership of Henry's son-in-law A.H. Lee, who owned it until it was obtained by F.W. Brickey in 1855. Brickey moved into the house around 1855, and three years later he arranged for the house to be doubled in size. His heirs owned the house for many decades, although by the 1930s, they were renting it instead of living there themselves. The house's most significant resident was Henry Clay Hansbrough; the son of E.C. Hansbrough, he grew up to be a nationally prominent Republican politician and a U.S. senator from North Dakota. Although it was built by Americans, the Creole House is a typical example of a French colonial style known as poteaux-sur-sol, which is otherwise unknown in present-day Illinois. Such houses were constructed by erecting a palisade of logs on top of a stone foundation, rather than using horizontal beams or studs like more modern designs. While the roof is supported by oak beam rafters, the original roof no longer survives; it is presently composed of modern composite shingles. Atop the stone foundation, pine boards have been laid to form the floor, and the interior walls are plastered. Multiple fireplaces are placed in the various rooms, with wooden mantels around them. The original portion of the house forms the southern half of the present structure; the northern half is the 1850s addition, which features a more modern stud-based form of construction. While the halves are separate from each other, the newer northern portion and older southern portion appear similar on the exterior, since both were sided when the northern portion was built. Because the shallow gabled roof extends past the western front of the house, it forms a large overhang that has been adapted into a long porch. The partially wooded lawn is surrounded by a fence of cast iron.

Location

Categories

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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