The Benjamin Stephenson House is a Federal style home built in 1820 in the city of

Edwardsville, Illinois Edwardsville is a city in and the county seat of Madison County, Illinois, and is a suburb of St. Louis. As of the 2020 census, the population was 26,808. The city was named in honor of Ninian Edwards, then Governor of the Illinois Territory. ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. The house was constructed by prominent Edwardsville citizen and Illinois politician Benjamin Stephenson. He died shortly after the home's completion and the home had 15 subsequent owners, some of whom made major alterations to the original structure. In 1845 the addition of an ell altered the appearance of the house. The last two owners were the

Sigma Phi Epsilon Sigma Phi Epsilon (), commonly known as SigEp, is a social college fraternity for male college students in the United States. It was founded on November 1, 1901, at Richmond College (now the University of Richmond), and its national headquarte ...

fraternity and the current owner, the city of Edwardsville. In 1999 the city of Edwardsville purchased the home from the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity and in 2001 a

restoration Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to: * Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage ** Audio restoration ** Film restoration ** Image restoration ** Textile restoration * Restoration ecology ...

project began. The project aimed to restore the house to its authentic 1820s appearance and open the house as a public museum. The house has been the subject of tales of ghostly activity since at least the 1970s, though no recent reports exist. The Stephenson House has prominence for its architecture and for its affiliation with Illinois politics. The building was added to the U.S.

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1980.

Location

The Benjamin Stephenson House was originally located on a tract of land about two miles (3 km) from the center of

; at the time along the bluffs above Cahokia Creek. The house, today, is located along South Buchanan Street in Edwardsville, along one of the busiest stretches of

Illinois Route 159 Illinois Route 159 is a north–south state road in southwestern Illinois. Its southern terminus is at Illinois Route 3 and Illinois Route 154 in Red Bud and its northern terminus at Illinois Route 16 in Royal Lakes. This is a distance of . R ...

. The house is still on its original site, though the property is only one acre.Benjamin Stephenson House
" Property Information Report, HAARGIS Database, ''Illinois Historic Preservation Agency''. Retrieved 19 September 2007.

History

Colonel Benjamin Stephenson purchased the tract of land that would become the site of the Stephenson House in 1819. In 1820 he began construction on the original east portion of the house, which, when complete served as his home, office and political headquarters for the remainder of his life.Weissman, Stephen.
Benjamin Stephenson House
" ( PDF), National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form, 23 January 1980, HAARGIS Database, ''Illinois Historic Preservation Agency'', pp. 1–10. Retrieved 19 September 2007. Benjamin Stephenson died in the home on October 10, 1822. On January 29, 1825, while at the Stephenson House for a party, Daniel D. Smith was stabbed to death. Apparently an argument occurred, and Smith was later found in the dining room with a stab wound; as the group was picking him up, he uttered "Winchester" and died.Belschner, Julie.
'No one was ever there' So what is behind the footsteps and other strange noises at the Stephenson House in Edwardsville?
," ''Edwardsville Journal'' (

), October 23, 2003. Retrieved August 15, 2007. News reports in ''The Spectator'' (Edwardsville) indicated that Smith was "killed in an affray" at the Stephenson House. Benjamin's son, James W. Stephenson, James D. Henry and Palemon Winchester were

indicted An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felonies, the most serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use the felonies concept often use that of ...

for the murder. Though all three men were charged with the crime, Stephenson and Henry were released on

bond Bond or bonds may refer to: Common meanings * Bond (finance), a type of debt security * Bail bond, a commercial third-party guarantor of surety bonds in the United States * Chemical bond, the attraction of atoms, ions or molecules to form chemica ...

. Winchester was the only defendant who faced trial in the murder. Winchester's lawyer argued that Smith was guilty of verbal assault against the defendant, and Winchester was found not guilty. He later went on to establish

Carlinville, Illinois Carlinville is a city and the county seat of Macoupin County, Illinois, United States. It is also the home of Blackburn College, a small college affiliated with the Presbyterian church, and the former home of Prairie Farms Dairy. As of the 2020 ...

and married Elvira Stephenson, Benjamin's daughter. The verdict was reported in ''The Spectator'' on March 22, 1825.Henry.
Inside the Stephenson House - November 14, 2002
," Henry's Newsletter, Newsletter #23, ''Friends of Col. Benjamin Stephenson House''. Retrieved August 15, 2007. In 1828 Stephenson left Edwardsville, moving to Galena in

Jo Daviess County Jo Daviess County () is the northwesternmost county in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2010 census, it had a population of 22,678. Its county seat is Galena. Jo Daviess County is part of the Tri-State Area and is located near D ...

where he made his home most of the rest of his life.Henry.
Inside the Stephenson House - July 8, 2002
," Henry's Newsletter, Newsletter #11, ''Friends of Col. Benjamin Stephenson House''. Retrieved August 15, 2007. He was buried at Lusk Memorial Cemetery in Edwardsville. In the years following Benjamin Stephenson's death, the house changed owners 15 times.
," Stephenson House History, ''Benjamin Stephenson House'', official site. Retrieved 19 September 2007. In 1833, Benjamin's son, James Stephenson owned the title to the Stephenson House, but by the next year it was owned by the wife of Stephenson family friend

Ninian Edwards Ninian Edwards (March 17, 1775July 20, 1833) was a founding political figure of the State of Illinois. He served as the first and only governor of the Illinois Territory from 1809 to until the territory was dissolved in 1818. He was then one of ...

, Elvira, who held the deed until 1837. Another owner, Frederick Wolf, purchased the home in 1838 and made significant alterations to the house in 1845, tearing down the detached kitchen and adding an ell to the building.Maddox, Terri.
Rebuilding history: 182-year-old Stephenson House has a story behind every brick
," ''Belleville News Democrat'' ( Belleville, Illinois), 18 February 2002. Retrieved 19 September 2007. That family occupied the home until at least 1894. Others who owned the house also made alterations including J. Frank Dickman in 1902; other changes were made during the 1940s. Rev. Stephen Weissman, who successfully nominated the house for the U.S.

, purchased the home in 1975. After the nomination's acceptance the house was designated an Edwardsville Landmark. In 1982 the

fraternity at

Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) is a public university in Edwardsville, Illinois. SIUE was established in 1957 as an extension of Southern Illinois University Carbondale.Butler 1976, p. 18 It is the younger of the two major inst ...

(SIUE) bought the house and occupied it until the late 1990s. In 1998 the Edwardsville Historic Preservation Committee received

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

800,000 from the state of Illinois, $500,000 of which they used to buy the Stephenson House from the fraternity.Eufinger, Christine.
Preservation group has big plans for state money
," ''Edwardsville Intelligencer'', May 30–31, 1998. Retrieved 19 September 2007. The city purchased the home in 1999 and the fraternity ended its tenure in what was the first fraternity house at SIUE.Brueggeman, Brian.

," ''Belleville News Democrat'' ( Belleville, Illinois), 11 April 2004. Retrieved 19 September 2007.

Restoration

On May 14, 2001, the city of Edwardsville held a ground breaking ceremony to officially commence a

project aimed at returning the house to the most original condition possible. The eventual goal of the project was to furnish the home circa 1820s and open it as a

house museum A historic house museum is a house of historic significance that has been transformed into a museum. Historic furnishings may be displayed in a way that reflects their original placement and usage in a home. Historic house museums are held to a v ...

to the public. The restoration project, overseen by the firm St. Louis Tuckpointing and Painting, carried a price tag of more than $1 million; $150,000 to purchase the house, $725,000 in restoration costs and $215,000 to purchase a nearby gas station.Pierce, Rick.
Restorers aim for authenticity in pioneer's home
," ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'', 8 August 2002, p. 3. Retrieved 19 September 2007. Initially the project was to be completed by December 2003, but by April 2004 most of the exterior work had been finished with interior

plaster Plaster is a building material used for the protective or decorative coating of walls and ceilings and for moulding and casting decorative elements. In English, "plaster" usually means a material used for the interiors of buildings, while "re ...

ing and

wood floor Wood flooring is any product manufactured from timber that is designed for use as flooring, either structural or aesthetic. Wood is a common choice as a flooring material and can come in various styles, colors, cuts, and species. Bamboo flooring ...

installation remaining. The restoration was nearly totally completed by the time the official dedication ceremony occurred on July 1–2, 2006, more than six years after the purchase of the house by the city.Tucker, Bill.
Stephenson House dedication complete
" ''Edwardsville Intelligencer'' (

), 3 July 2006. Retrieved 19 September 2007.

Architecture

The house was built in the early Federal style and was originally designed as a two-story rectangular building with four square rooms. The interior and exterior walls are of three course thick brick; the bricks were manufactured on site by Benjamin Stephenson's

indentured servant Indentured servitude is a form of labor in which a person is contracted to work without salary for a specific number of years. The contract, called an "indenture", may be entered "voluntarily" for purported eventual compensation or debt repaymen ...

s. The exterior is composed of at least 100,000 bricks, all of which were made on the Stephenson House property. Each of the four rooms, two on the first floor and two on the second floor are 18 foot (5.5 m) by 18 foot (5.5 m) square and contain

fireplace A fireplace or hearth is a structure made of brick, stone or metal designed to contain a fire. Fireplaces are used for the relaxing ambiance they create and for heating a room. Modern fireplaces vary in heat efficiency, depending on the design ...

s. Five windows grace the second floor, while on the first floor there are four windows and an inset door which opens into the central hallway. On its interior, the Stephenson House, again, has brick walls. The central hallway is 7 feet (2.1 m) wide and stretches in a "Southern manner," from the front to the back of the house. The central hallway contains the home's staircase. The four rooms' fireplaces are vented through two chimneys, constructed flush with the north and south end walls. The interior floor were originally of four inch (102 mm) wide

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accepts ...

board and covered with

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

during the 1940s. The staircase is made of red cypress and features relatively ornately carved

woodwork Woodworking is the skill of making items from wood, and includes cabinet making (cabinetry and furniture), wood carving, joinery, carpentry, and woodturning. History Along with stone, clay and animal parts, wood was one of the first mater ...

, all of which is original and cast in

Adam style The Adam style (or Adamesque and "Style of the Brothers Adam") is an 18th-century neoclassical style of interior design and architecture, as practised by Scottish architect William Adam and his sons, of whom Robert (1728–1792) and James (17 ...

. Behind (west of) the original house was a detached, 20 foot (6.1 m) by 20 foot (6.1 m)

kitchen A kitchen is a room or part of a room used for cooking and food preparation in a dwelling or in a commercial establishment. A modern middle-class residential kitchen is typically equipped with a stove, a sink with hot and cold running wate ...

constructed over a fruit cellar. The detached kitchen was torn down when the home underwent extensive remodeling in 1845. During this time period a two-story wing was added to the home. The wing, 20 foot (6.1 m) by 40 foot (12.2 m), altered the home's appearance into an ell pattern. The ell was built of the same brick as the original home, but covered six windows with its construction on the Stephenson House's west (rear) facade. A 13-foot (4.0 m) wide

veranda A veranda or verandah is a roofed, open-air gallery or porch, attached to the outside of a building. A veranda is often partly enclosed by a railing and frequently extends across the front and sides of the structure. Although the form ''vera ...

was attached to the wing's south side. The entire new addition was cast in the

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but a ...

style. The subsequent owner made further alterations to the house in 1902. The owner added a 20-foot (6.1 m) by 12 foot (3.7 m) Victorian front

porch A porch (from Old French ''porche'', from Latin ''porticus'' "colonnade", from ''porta'' "passage") is a room or gallery located in front of an entrance of a building. A porch is placed in front of the facade of a building it commands, and form ...

, complete with a

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

roof and Victorian style wood

tracery Tracery is an architectural device by which windows (or screens, panels, and vaults) are divided into sections of various proportions by stone ''bars'' or ''ribs'' of moulding. Most commonly, it refers to the stonework elements that support the ...

. He also reversed the home's staircase and filled in all four original fireplaces. During the 1940s the home underwent further remodeling, in part, to modernize the building. Inside, modern plumbing was added and outside a frame one car garage was attached to the west end of the house. The 1902 porch was torn off the east facade, thus restoring it to its original appearance. In addition, the

pillar A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. ...

s on the south side of the house were replaced with square designs and a

French door A door is a hinged or otherwise movable barrier that allows ingress (entry) into and egress (exit) from an enclosure. The created opening in the wall is a ''doorway'' or ''portal''. A door's essential and primary purpose is to provide security by ...

was cut into the north facade to open onto a brick

terrace Terrace may refer to: Landforms and construction * Fluvial terrace, a natural, flat surface that borders and lies above the floodplain of a stream or river * Terrace, a street suffix * Terrace, the portion of a lot between the public sidewalk an ...

Purported hauntings

Stories of alleged ghostly phenomena at the Stephenson House date back to at least the 1970s.Henry.
Inside the Stephenson House - April 3, 2003
," Henry's Newsletter, Newsletter #33, Friends of Col. Benjamin Stephenson House. Retrieved 19 September 2007. Speculation about the identity of the purported spirit has centered around Benjamin Stephenson, who died in the house. One former resident, who lived in the house during the 1970s told a local newspaper about phantom footsteps, odd noises, and the appearance of someone on the terrace when no one was there. Members of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity recalled similar and different incidents. Former fraternity members reported, not only the phantom footsteps, but servants peering out from behind mirrors and "people" in military uniforms. A Stephenson House volunteer and Edwardsville historian reported that in her years of work at the house she has yet to experience any ghostly phenomena.Saxton, Jennifer Kapiolini.
Haunted: Ghost stories from around the region
" ''Belleville News Democrat'' ( Belleville, Illinois), 23 October 2006. Retrieved 19 September 2007.

Significance

The Benjamin Stephenson House is the oldest brick house in Edwardsville and considered significant for its architectural beauty, and association with important historic Illinois figures. Architecturally, the house is representative of an era. Most of the house's importance comes from its association with the family of Benjamin Stephenson. The Stephenson family played a prominent role in Illinois politics. Benjamin Stephenson served as a

colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge o ...

during the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States, United States of America and its Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom ...

and later held several political offices including

U.S. representative The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...

from the

Illinois Territory The Territory of Illinois was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 1, 1809, until December 3, 1818, when the southern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Illinois. Its ...

and delegate to the first Illinois constitutional convention. In 1836 the Illinois legislature named Stephenson County, in northern Illinois, after him. One of his sons, James W. Stephenson, also played a prominent role in Illinois politics as the Democratic gubernatorial candidate in 1836. Commonly, and mistakenly, the house is often referred to as the "Edwards House". This is due to the close association of the Stephenson family with that of first Illinois territorial Governor

. The historical record shows that Benjamin Stephenson and Edwards were close personal friends and political allies.History
," ''Benjamin Stephenson House'', official site. Retrieved 19 September 2007. The pair led the Edwardsville Jacksonian Democratic Party and when Edwards' house burned he and his family took up residence in the Stephenson House for a time. The Benjamin Stephenson House is the remaining piece of architecture which intertwines the two men's personal stories. For its architectural style and political affiliations the Benjamin Stephenson House was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on May 31, 1980. As early as 1972

Illinois State Senator The Illinois Senate is the upper chamber of the Illinois General Assembly, the legislative branch of the government of the State of Illinois in the United States. The body was created by the first state constitution adopted in 1818. Under the I ...

Sam Vadalabene sponsored a bill meant to authorize the state to purchase the Stephenson House and open it to the public as an Illinois State Historic Site. Though the bill passed the Illinois House of Representatives, then-governor Richard Buell Ogilvie vetoed the legislation.London, Donna.
Events set at Stephenson House
," ''Edwardsville Intelligencer'' (

), 10 May 2001. Retrieved 19 September 2007. The Illinois Historic Sites Inventory was ongoing during this period, 1971–1975, and it also noted the Stephenson House for its architectural and political significance.Hindrup, V.H.
Benjamin Stephenson House
" ( PDF), Illinois Historic Sites Survey Inventory Form, HAARGIS Database, ''Illinois Historic Preservation Agency'', pp. 11–15. Retrieved 19 September 2007.

Notes

External links

Benjamin Stephenson House
official site
Benjamin Stephenson House
Property Information Report, ''

Illinois Historic Preservation Agency The Illinois Historic Preservation Division, formerly Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, is a governmental agency of the U.S. state of Illinois, and is a division of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. It is tasked with the duty of m ...

'', accessed May 20, 2008. {{DEFAULTSORT:Stephenson, Benjamin, House Edwardsville, Illinois Houses completed in 1820 Federal architecture in Illinois Historic house museums in Illinois Museums in Madison County, Illinois Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois National Register of Historic Places in Madison County, Illinois Houses in Madison County, Illinois 1820 establishments in Illinois