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The Charles Mansur House at 1808 Main Street, built in ca. <br />1856-1860 (not pictured), is thought to be the oldest extant <br />dwelling in Elk River. Mansur was a native of Ohio and <br />worked as a sawyer in the Godfrey sawmill. The streets of <br />Uppertown were built with a number of buildings like the <br />Mansur House. Although many of the exteriors have been <br />modernized, their symmetrical proportions, low-pitched gable <br />roofs, and regularly- spaced windows are keys to their likely <br />date of construction. <br /> <br />Early Elk River farmhouses were likely much the same, <br />although there are none known to be extant. An early view of <br />the first house built by Oliver H. Kelley in Section 14 shows the <br />Greek Revival style and clapboard exterior typical of pre-Civil <br />War farmhouses. <br /> <br />Despite his wealth and standing in the community, W. H. <br />Houlton did not build an elaborate residence. As illustrated in <br />the Elk River Souvenir in 1901, the large, .two-story Italianate <br />house had a simple roofline and a one-story wing. After the <br />Civil War, and with the growth of a small class of prosperous <br />merchants and millers, a few houses of more architectural <br />pretension were erected. Italianate and Gothic Revival style <br />houses were popularized by a variety of publications that <br />could be copied by local carpenters. Frame rather than brick <br />was chosen for most construction. <br /> <br />In the 1880s, a Queen Anne Style house was erected by Henry <br />Castle at a cost of $3,000.67 His clapboard and shingle-clad <br />house with much turned work boasted what were noted in the <br />local press as "devil points" in the cresting at the roofline. <br />Castle pumped interior water from a private tower shared with <br />three neighbors. <br /> <br />Frank T. White House in 1981. Photo: MHS. <br /> <br />Elk River Historic Contexts and Phase II Downtown Commercial Area Study <br /> 38 <br /> <br /> <br />