Landmark Designations - Photos & Descriptions

 

212 West Washington
Once described as “formidable and imposing”, the Brown home at 212 W. Washington exemplifies the Victorian Italianate style. Built in 1884 for Ernst J. Tiedemann, member of a key early O'Fallon family, the two-story house has more than 30 windows with stone sills, a two-story porch, a prominent bay, and a slate roof with inlaid copper gutters. Inside are ten rooms, including an upstairs “ballroom” and what is reputed to be O’Fallon’s first bathroom with indoor plumbing.


200 North Lincoln Avenue 
The Old City Hall located at 200 N. Lincoln was built in 1890 on the southwest corner of a public park that occupied the entire block bordered by Lincoln Avenue and Washington Street. The original building was a two-story brick structure on a rock foundation with a tin roof, tall brick chimneys and a bell tower with a steeple (removed in 1937 renovations). When O’Fallon was smaller, the building housed the police and fire departments and the city jail, as well as providing space for social activities, city business and public meetings.
 

302 West Adams Street

The Hertich home at 302 W. Adams mixes classic elements of Queen Anne architecture with influences of the American Four Square.  Built in 1905, the exterior is covered with original narrow clapboard and has a wrap-around porch with decorated wooden columns and  a massive oak front door with beveled glass and matching side panels.  There are two matching sets of bay windows.  Inside, an open wide oak stairway winds to the second floor. The home is actually a perfect square with the same amount of area upstairs and downstairs.
 

509 North Lincoln Avenue 
Typical of the country Victorian style is the Nix home, at 509 N. Lincoln.  Built in 1901, the two-story  frame house has a turret, two ornate porches, an arched  window and fish-scale gables. The outside of the home is covered with original clapboard that has been painted an authentic yellow from the early 1900s.  Inside the home the many wooden doors are decorated with carved motifs, the floors throughout are pine planks and there are wooden pocket doors.
 


St. Clare Roman Catholic Church  205 West Third Street

Built in a Gothic Revival style that echoes some of Europe’s greatest cathedrals, St. Clare Roman Catholic Church located at 205 W. Third was dedicated in 1895, with the 153-foot steeple completed in 1899. The building was constructed around an earlier church dating from 1867; services continued in the original church even as the new one was being built. Although ornate interior ornamentation was lost due to the reforms of Vatican II, the soaring trefoil windows remain.

 


503 North Lincoln Avenue The Springer home at 503 N Lincoln was built in 1910 in the California Mission style. It was built for Charles Smiley, who co-owned the telephone company in O’Fallon and was one of the town’s first developers. Typical features include smooth stucco siding, roof parapets, large pillars and entry porch. The  home is built around a central dining room, originally a glass-roofed atrium. The basement garage included a turntable so that a driver would not have to back out.
 

319 North Cherry
The Louis
home at 319 N. Cherry is the birthplace of Hollywood actor William Holden. Christened William Franklin Beedle, Jr., he was born on April 17, 1918 in the home owned by his grandfather Walter Beedle, a direct descendent of Captain Joseph Ogle, the first settler in the O’Fallon area. Holden made his film debut in 1938 and continued his career as a dominant image in the American film industry for over forty years, starring in such films as Sunset Boulevard and Stalag 17.



109 West Washington Street
The home at 109 West
Washington is a well-preserved example of a Queen Anne cottage. Built in 1887, it was the residence of August Behrns, a blacksmith in early O’Fallon, and ownership has remained in the family through the years. Identifying features include the steeply pitched roof with dominant front-facing cross gable, a symmetrical facade decorated with a small front porch, and spindle work or gingerbread suspended as a frieze from both front and back porch ceilings. The rear porch leads to a summer kitchen.

 


703 South Lincoln Avenue
The Rauckman home, located at 703 S. Lincoln, was built in 1929. The Craftsman-style bungalow is a single 1 1/2 story brick home with a side-gable slate roof. The rounded entrance door can be seen through arched brick pillars on either side of the steps leading to the porch. The house is marked by inset stonework and multi-colored bricks laid out in a random pattern. The original all-brick two-car detached garage with slate roof is characteristic of the bungalow, one of the first types of houses to feature adjacent garages designed to match the house in materials and stylistic details.
 


Scale House - 214 East 1st Street
Built in 1907, the Scale House was intended as an office for the weigh-master in charge of the eight-ton wagon scale installed near the old railroad depot in the 100 block of E. First Street.  Through the years the Scale House was moved several times and in 1940 the scale was removed and its use discontinued.  Relocated to Community Park in 1955, the building was used as a park office and gained the nickname Money Shack since it was used to count the money collected at picnics in the park.  In 2001 the O’Fallon Historical Society’s efforts to save  the structure from demolition were successful and it was relocated to 214 E. First near its original location, to serve as a museum operated by the Society.
 


216 West Adams Street
Built in 1903, the Bernreuter house at 216 W. Adams is a classic Queen Anne two-story four square design, of frame construction with original clapboard siding, wrap-around porch with large Doric columns and a back porch with turned wooden spindles. The small barn behind the house, with its tin roof, board-and-batten siding, and sliding carriage doors, together with the hitching post in front of the house, are poignant reminders of the lifestyle in O’Fallon at the turn of the last century.
 

102 West Washington Street

Built in 1877, the Wolfersberger Funeral Home at 102 W Washington102 W Washington
is one of O’Fallon’s most recognizable examples of 19th century brick architecture. The building is constructed in a simple Italianate style, a two-story white-painted brick with porches on two sides, a bay window (with stained glass) and decorative cornices. The home was originally the home of Elizabeth Penn Scott. It was used as a residence until 1947 when it was converted to its present use.



207 West Second Street
The Riebold residence at 207 W. Second is a fine example of the Victorian Italianate style. Built in 1887, construction is of solid brick, with a cross-hipped roof, window sashes with segmental arches and original wooden shutters. The cornice has a dentil frieze typical of the style. At one time shared by three families (with just one bath), the house is once again a single-family dwelling.
 


505 North Lincoln Avenue
The Lee home, located at 505 N Lincoln, is a textbook version of the Eclectic Neo-Classical style. It is a frame house, of rectangular plan, with  narrow clapboard siding, an over-hanging roof which encloses a full-width porch and four large dormer windows, one for each section of the hip roof. Built in 1913, it was the former home of Marie Schaefer, a legendary school teacher in the O’Fallon Grade School for over 40 years. She retired in 1964, shortly after the school campus where she taught was renamed in her honor.
 


109 Betty Lane
Built in 1914, the Funk residence at 109 Betty Lane is part of a series of houses in the neighborhood of the old Willard stove foundry, constructed to provide rental homes for company employees. William Willard built 23 homes using sheet metal from the St. Louis World’s Fair to sheath interior walls as well as roofs and exteriors. These later became family homes to various Willard descendants. The home is built on a simplified version of a Gothic Revival plan, with a compound gable roof and full-width porch with decorative moldings on the porch supports.
 


106 East Monroe
The Peterson residence, located at 106 E. Monroe, was built in 1923 in the Greek Revival style. The full-facade porch is marked by four pairs of columns and covered by the side-gabled  roof.  A cross-gable section extends the house back towards its garage,  designed in harmony with the house. The  surface is stucco throughout.  The home’s original owner, Christy Porter, was a direct descendant of Captain Joseph Ogle, the first settler in the O’Fallon area. His wife Cora was instrumental in establishing O’Fallon’s public library.
 


Amelia Carriel Fountain 
(505 South Cherry Street)

Dedicated in 1927, the Amelia Carriel Memorial Fountain still stands in its original location on the grounds of the present day Marie Schaefer school. The inscription on the large gray granite fountain reads: “1876-1926. Dedicated to the memory of Amelia V. Carriel who devoted fifty years of her life to teaching in the O’Fallon Schools. As cold water to a thirsty soul.”
 


American Legion-Grange Hut
(209 East Fifth Street)

The American Legion-Grange Hut, located at 209 East Fifth Street, was built in 1934 by American Legion Post 137 using electric poles from the trolley line that once ran through O’Fallon.  The exposed log and mortar construction is featured both inside and out, with the interior boasting a wagon-wheel chandelier.  Originally located at the northeast corner of Washington & Vine, it was moved to its present location in 1976.  The home of Enterprise Grange since 1958, the hut has been maintained by the Grange as a community meeting place since 1968.

 


The Mansion
(1680 Mansion Way)

Popularly known as The Mansion, this prominent home at 1680 Mansion Way was built in 1857 for A.J. Wastfield, a highly successful young farmer of early O’Fallon. An exemplary Italianate-style home, the 2 story brick home features a low pitched hipped roof with widely overhanging eaves, tall narrow windows with ornate crowns, a central square cupola, and small balcony. Elaborate eave brackets with acorn drops dominate the cornice line, and are reproduced for the cupola and to support the entablature of the front door entry. Used primarily as a residence over the years, The Mansion’s current owners opened “Paulo’s at the Mansion” restaurant within its magnificent walls in 2007.

 


110 West Washington
The Jordan residence at 110 West Washington is a fine example of the brick “I-house”, a post-railroad form of National Folk House proven to be one of the more stable and enduring styles used in the American Midwest. Built in 1877, the 2 story central passage structure with symmetrical windows flanking the front door has external chimneys centered on both gable ends and a 2 story addition. Adornments include a simple bracketed pediment and transom light over the front door, and the original standing-seam metal roof on the aspect facing the street.

 


104 South Cherry Street
Built in 1903 as the site of a state bank, the sprawling one-story building at 104 S Cherry was converted to a saloon and lunch room with bowling alley by Frank Hartman in 1904 when the bank never opened.  In 1908, a new upper story added a huge dance floor uniquely free of posts, with a capacity of 900 said to be the largest in Southern Illinois.  After a fascinating history at the very center of recreational and social events, the Moolinght Hall fell into decline until in 2005 Brad and Timi McMillin began to restore its former glory, uncovering decorative Mesker ironwork and other features including clapboard siding on the second floor, red bricks on the north and west facades of the first floor, flat-roofed skylights and an arched entrance on the diagonal at the 1st and Cherry St. corner.
 


305 North Cedar Street
An excellent example of residential Streamline Moderne architecture, the Brown home at 305 N. Cedar was built in 1953 in Budina Place for Gustave C. Budina, third generation O'Fallon contractor. Smooth wall surfaces, a flat roof with a small coping near the roofline, rounded corners, and horizontal row windows are typical of this style. The home has an open floor plan, a glass block window on the east facade and a unique 3 porthole front door. It is the only example of this style in O'Fallon.
 


118 Ruth Drive
The Rost house at 118 Ruth Drive was built in 1959 in Asbury Park for the subdivision's developer, Dr. Ernest C. Asbury, the first medical doctor to practice at Scott Field. Exemplifying the classic ranch-style home dominant during the 1950's and 60's, the one story with garage attached uses 3 roof forms - hipped, two side cross-gables and a cross-gabled central section. Wide over-hangs with decorative brackets are amount the rustic design elements that further enhance this charming Storybook home.
 


City Cemeteries
Within the boundaries of O’Fallon City Cemetery are three pioneer cemeteries. The oldest and smallest is Mace Cemetery, a private family cemetery established in 1866 by the will of early settler Henry Mace, whose wife Drusilla as a small child in 1786 witnessed the killing of her family, was kidnapped by Indians and later ransomed. St. Clare Catholic Cemetery was established in 1870 and served as the parish burial ground over the next 52 years, the most prominent grave that of Father William Drube who served the parish for over four decades. The largest is the Tiedemann Cemetery, platted in 1877 by Dietrich Tiedemann after enlargement around the original Tiedemann family burial plot. Lots were then offered for sale by the Tiedemann family to local residents, making it the first public cemetery in O’Fallon.
 


O'Fallon Apostolic Assembly Church
(403 South Lincoln Avenue
)
Built in 1865, the venerable brick structure at 403 S. Lincoln is the oldest existing house of worship in O'Fallon.  Serving as home of the Methodist Church until 1970 and the Assembly of God Church until 1998, it is now owned by the O'Fallon Apostolic Assembly Church who held their first services here on January 3, 1999.  The simplicity and classical symmetry of design are evident, with bays defined by brick pilasters and a series of tall, leaded, pebbled-glass windows with rounded deeply set arches.  At the church's front, two of the windows flank a central door, topped with a fanlight arch.  An ornate copper cross is at the top of the shuttered octagonal steeple which houses a working bell.
 


St. Clare Catholic School
(214 West Third Street)

The original St Clare School building was completed in 1926 although the parish school dates from 1868.  Children were taught by Sisters Adorers of the Most Precious Blood.  The structure consisted of 2 stories + basement.  The exterior is of Hiltex brick with Bedford stone ornamentation.  Interior details included terrazzo & maple flooring with walls finished in white & green enameled brick.  Classroom ceilings were 12’ high with continuous windows on the North & South.  The 2nd floor boasted a 650 seat auditorium & 15’ ceilings with no support from the floor.
 


OTHS Gymnasium
(505 South Cherry Street)

The Marie Schaefer Elementary School Gymnasium was completed in 1939 with the help of a Depression-era grant via the Public Works Administration.  The building, originally part of the high school, was the last of O’Fallon’s pre-WWII public school buildings.  The chief architect & primary designer was Wilbert G Knoebel.  The exterior is brick accented by contrasting bands of Art Deco ceramic tiles.  “GYMNASIUM” is spelled out in abstract Deco font over the entrance.  The interior lobby terrazzo floors with inlaid “OTHS” and the wooden basketball court, bleachers, & stage are remarkably preserved.

 

226 West State Street 

Wachter's Hall is a 3- story commercial structure built in 1887 in the then popular General Grant style.  Over its lifetime it has hosted a variety of stores, social events, and even a chicken hatchery.  The building is currently home to Salvatore Cincotta Photography who accomplished an impressive restoration in 2013.

 

101 Dartmouth Drive

The first of the Smiley homes, 101 Dartmouth, built in 1958, initiated a new era in O’Fallon — an era of affordable single-family homes in larger developments.  The homes were built using pre-fabricated elements manufactured in Indiana by national Homes Corp., and trucked to the site. Our example, the “Sunwood” model, retains its original Modern Traditional look, but after decades of individual modifications, the community now appears more diverse than when first constructed.

 

501 N Cherry

501 N CherryThe home at 501 N. Cherry is a two-story frame structure with steeply pitched gable and hip roofs. The front façade includes a square bay over a chamfered bay, detail typical of this era of home construction locally. 501 N. Cherry was the home of William R. Dorris, who moved to O’Fallon in 1899 to become the first principal of O’Fallon High School. W. R. Dorris (he usually went by his initials) was one of those rare civic leaders in O’Fallon who pursued two very different careers in his lifetime and was a pioneer in both—education and banking. He was a member and often an officer of numerous professional and civic organizations and contributed greatly to the City of O’Fallon until his death in 1967.

102 S Vine102 S Vine

At the southeast corner of South Vine and East First sits the Hillesheim building, a box-shaped structure constructed during the post-World War II building boom in O’Fallon. Henry “Hank” Ben Wuebbels, Jr. broke ground for a new service station at 102 South Vine with a grand opening date of September 6, 1947. What was originally “Hank’s Service Station” was intended to be a one stop station for car greasing, car washing, repair, tires, accessories, gasoline, and oil. Today, the use of the building is consistent with its automobile roots, being occupied by O’Fallon Tire Center, as well as Hometown Barbershop and L & D Wilson’s Siding and Roofing.