Quincy, Ill. | $339,000
An early 20th-century Greek Revival home with four bedrooms, three full bathrooms and two half bathrooms, on a 0.35-acre lot
The George and Sadie Dashwood House, with its Ionic columns supporting a double-height front porch, was designed by George Behrensmeyer, a prominent local architect, and presented as a gift by Mrs. Dashwood’s parents. (Mr. Dashwood owned a drugstore and later worked in real estate.) In 2005, a large-scale interior renovation was commenced that preserved many original features. Later, the current owners installed new central air-conditioning and a new boiler, replaced the copper roof over the front portico, rebuilt the screened porch and made improvements to the basement.
The house is in one of four national historic districts in Quincy, a city of about 40,000 that is about 300 miles southwest of Chicago, 130 miles northwest of St. Louis and 22 miles north of Hannibal, Mo. (Quincy is situated on bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River, just east of Missouri; before the Civil War, its position in a free state across the river from a slave state made it an important stop on the Underground Railroad.)
This house is one of a quartet with different historical styles that occupy the four corners of the intersection of 18th and Maine Streets. It is about a mile and a half east of the river, half a mile south of Quincy University and half a mile west of Madison Park, the oldest of the city’s many green spaces.
Size: 4,221 square feet
Price per square foot: $81
Indoors: A foyer with original stained glass surrounding the front door leads to a hall with original hardwood floors. The living room, on the left, has an entrance framed by fluted Ionic columns and a gas-burning fireplace with a marble surround and a classical mantel. Another set of columns introduces a den to the rear of the living room, where a pair of doors with stained-glass panes open to a screened porch. A larger study is immediately to the right of the front door, with original pocket doors and built-in bookshelves. Beyond it is a large formal dining room with white molding contrasting with deep red walls. A stained-glass panel with a motif of green leaves is set between a pair of large windows.
The dining room flows into the kitchen by way of a butler’s pantry with vintage glass-fronted cabinets and a stack of built-in drawers. An updated version of the same white cabinetry fills out a wall of the kitchen, which also contains an exposed-brick chimney and a decorative fireplace. The main level has a powder room, as well.
On the reconfigured second floor, the master bedroom suite includes multiple closets, a dressing room with its own hallway entrance and two bathrooms, one with a claw-foot tub and the other with a shower. Two additional bedrooms share a Jack-and-Jill bathroom with a claw-foot tub. A fourth bedroom close to a rear staircase was originally a maid’s room and now serves as a small study. There is also a linen room with built-in shelves and drawers.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nytimes.com
