Richard Oglesby Mansion, Decatur, Illinois
Image by myoldpostcards
A view of the Oglesby Mansion on William St. in Decatur, where lawyer, former Civil War General, Illinois Governor, and U.S. Senator Richard J. Oglesby (1824-1899) and his second wife Emma lived from 1874 to 1882. Oglesby was elected to serve as Illinois Governor in the elections of 1864, 1872, and 1884. After being inaugurated for this second term as Governor in 1873, Oglesby stepped down from his office to be appointed to the United States Senate by his Lt. Governor, John Lourie Beveridge, who had become Governor following Oglesby’s resignation. Oglesby served a full six-year term to the U.S. Senate from 1873 to 1879. In 1884, Oglesby was elected Governor for a third time, and completed his full term which ended in 1889. After an unsuccessful run to be reelected to his Senate seat. Oglesby spent his remaining years in retirement and died at his "Oglehurst" estate in Elkhart, Illinois, where he is buried.
Oglesby purchased the property on which the house was built in 1859, and apparently lived in an older structure that was incorporated in the extant house. By 1868-69, Governor Oglesby contacted a Chicago architect, William LeBaron Jenney (father of the skyscraper) to provide plans for a new house. After the death of his first wife, Anna, the plans were put aside. The governor and his second wife, Emma, brought them back out after their marriage, modified them, and hired D.C. Shockley, a Decatur contractor, as the builder. The new house was attached to the east side of the old house, and the old one was used for a kitchen and servants’ quarters.
The house was built in the Italianate style with a low pitched roof and a widow’s walk. The decorative brackets are one of the main features of the Italianate style. On the front of the house are two-story bay windows of contrasting design with diamond-shaped window panes. The main floor of the house features a library, dining room, parlor, sun porch, and kitchen. The second floor was the family’s private space, containing several bedrooms. Eleven-foot ceilings are emphasized by long, narrow windows
and french doors. There are eight fireplaces.
In 1972 the mansion was purchased by the Macon County Conservation District with a state grant. Restoration began in 1976. The care and operation of the house are under the direction of the Governor Oglesby Mansion, Inc.
The Richard Oglesby House is a significant architectural and historical property in the Decatur Historic District, a residential historic district in the Millikin Heights neighborhood of Decatur. The district encompasses the city’s historic Near West and Southwest neighborhoods and was formed beginning in the 1850s and continuing through the 1920s. The Decatur Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.
Decatur is the seat of Macon County. The city was founded in 1829 and is situated along the Sangamon River and Lake Decatur in central Illinois. Decatur has an economy based on industrial and agricultural commodity processing and production. The city is home of private Millikin University and public Richland Community College.
Decatur’s estimated population for 2019 was 70,746, making Decatur the thirteenth-most populous city in Illinois, and the state’s sixth-most populous city outside the Chicago metropolitan area.
