January 2011

Lexington’s Franklin Mansion – Part 2

From our abbreviated family tree below we have tried to show the relationship between our young host for this series of pictures and stories of the Franklin Mansion today, and the famous Lexingtonians from the past who have been highlighted in our previous articles.  Back in May of 2010 we did an extensive story about Lexington’s first citizen, Jacob Spawr, (the family pronounces it "Spore") who is the great, great, great grandfather of young Noah.  Jacob and Eliza’s daughter Sarah, a great, great grandmother of Noah, was the niece of Jesse Trimmer, the original builder of the house, now known as the Franklin Mansion. Since Noah and Sarah’s purchase from the Trimmers in 1877, the house has been cared for and inhabited by Franklins ever since.  See more details in the November 2010 article about who lived in the house in past years. 

Who’s Our Noah?

This is the lovely Franklin home on South Street in Lexington, Illinois.  It was built about 1867 and still boasts having many of the original appointments.  Notice the antique iron fence and the handy hitching post still ready to welcome visitors to the stately home.

When I sat down with young Noah Franklin in 2011 to talk about the Franklin house, he seemed rather surprised that many Lexington folks look upon the house as such a unique treasure from Lexington’s past.  To Noah the familiar places he photographed are just “HOME.” History doesn’t go that far back for a 12 year old—literally! Intellectually he knows that lots of Franklins and other relatives have lived there before, but their significance to our entire community doesn’t have much meaning to him at his early stage of life.  He did admit that living in an old, historic home has its drawbacks—Mom won’t let them throw toys around or rough house that much “because something historical might get ruined!”

So begins our tour of the Franklin Mansion in Lexington, Illinois according to Noah.  We start on the outside where we are greeted by a unique iron fence that is an original feature of the old Trimmer house.  What care and dedication it has taken to maintain and preserve this beautiful feature of the homestead.  The current sewer work in the town of Lexington had these homeowners worried—about their fence! Luckily the sewer builders have agreed to cooperate and do everything possible to preserve the old fence. The new sewer lines will have to be dug under the historic fence, a surprising concession when you see the damage done to streets and lawns all over town! 

Detail of fence posts.	View of front gate from the porch.

Approaching the Franklin home inside the fence gives us a good view of the architecture of the 1860’s.  Long, tall arched windows, repeated arches on the porches, ornate window and door trim, and provisions for storm protection and outdoor living are all visible when the exterior is studied up close. 

	First we see the north facade with the original entrance. Picture 2 is a closer look at the east side with the open porch. Picture 3 shows details of the original ornate front door. Picture 4 is a close up of the west side vine covered brick. Picture 5 is of the roomy front porch and arches.

Way at the top of the roof is an original area of the home called the Widow’s Walk.  A widow's walk (or roofwalk) is a railed rooftop platform often with a small enclosed cupola frequently found on 19th century North American houses. A popular romantic myth holds that the platform was used to watch for vessels at sea. The name comes from the wives of mariners, who would watch for their spouses' return, often in vain as the ocean took the lives of the mariners, leaving the women as widows.  However, there is little or no evidence that widow's walks were intended or regularly used for this purpose.

Widow's walks are in fact a standard decorative feature of Italianate architecture, which was very popular during the 1800’s.  The widow's walk is a variation of the Italianate cupola, also known as a "belvedere", and was an important ornate finish to the style, although it was often high maintenance and prone to leaks.

Beyond use as a viewing platform, roofwalks are frequently built around the chimney of the residence, thus creating an easy access route to the structure. This allowed the residents to pour sand down burning chimneys in the event of a chimney fire in the hope of preventing the house from burning down.  (This information was from an encyclopedia.)

The widow's walk of an old house is also an intriguing spot for any 12 year old boy!

Noah reports that the family often looks out from the widow’s walk to view several fireworks displays from surrounding communities on the 4^th of July.

	First picture in this group is a view from the widow's walk looking south. Next is a close up of the roof and tight quarters. The 3rd picture here is a view to the north with the Lexington grain elevators visible on the left.

On the secluded west side of the house is the area where the original smokehouse stood.  It has since been remodeled into a pool area, complete with curving slide and clear water, and a comfortable pool house converted from the old smokehouse by Grandpa Elmo.  The Franklin children all agree that the pool is a much better use of this space! 

Smokehouse converted into a pool house!	Just a bit of the Franklin's pool.

At the back of the home, or on the south side and filling the rest of the huge city lot, are the out buildings.  A modern garage is near the house and the original barn, with a few improvements, is still home to the family horse.

Bambi peeks out of the original updated barn.	A modern garage sits between barn and house.

Today the Franklin horse, Bambi, is Noah’s 4H project and all the family enjoys riding and caring for their pet, quite a different situation than in the days when the barn housed the main transportation for the family!  Do you recall the well-known picture of great-great grandpa Noah riding on his horse?  Horsemanship must run in the family!

Sunny porch: This area of the exterior has been enclosed as an entry porch and is the door the family comes into close to their garage.

Noah notes that they certainly enjoy using this area for picnic suppers on warm summer evenings and as a gathering place during family parties.  As you can see from the photos the original exterior bricks form the walls of the sunny porch room and make it a fitting rustic entrance to the historical home. 

Join us next month for more stories and photos from Noah as we visit the interior part of our Franklin Mansion tour.

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