6.2. HRSR 05-28-2002 - Laserfiche WebLink

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• The Charles Mansur House at 1808 Main Street,built in ca. 1856-1860,is thought to be the oldest extant dwelling in Elk River.Mansur was a native of Ohio and worked as a sawyer in the Godfrey sawmill.The streets of Uppertown were built with a scattering of such buildings.Although many of the exteriors have been modernized,their small proportions,low-pitched gable roofs,and regularly spaced windows are keys to their likely date of construction. Early Elk River farmhouses were likely much the same, although there are none known to be extant.An early view of the first house built by Oliver Kelley shows the Greek Revival style and clapboard exterior typical of pre-Civil War farmhouses. W.H.Houlton,despite his wealth and standing in the community,did not build a pretentious house.As illustrated in the Elk River Souvenir in 1901,the large,two story Italianate house had a simple roofline and a one-story wing.After the Civil War,and with the growth of a small class of prosperous merchants and millers,a few houses of more architectural pretension were erected. Italianate and Gothic Revival style houses were popularized by a variety of publications that could be copied by local carpenters. Frame rather than brick was chosen for construction.(Prevalence of brick in Elk River Township?) III In the 1880s,a Queen Anne Style house was erected by Henry Castle at a cost of 3,000.`This clapboard and shingle-clad house with much turned work boasted"devil points"in the cresting at the roofline and the owners pumped interior water from a private tower shared with three neighbors. r1 +c - - , A. , 4, , ae& r .,' ', $`" /4„, aid' ''a'.. HS. Frank T. White House in 1981.Photo:M Frank T.White(1866 1947)built one Elk River's most impressive houses at 1135 Main Street.An attorney,politician, and real estate developer,White chose a design from the II) Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 5/2002 34