The George Johnson House is an historic building located near

Calamus, Iowa Calamus () is a small town in Clinton County, Iowa, United States, located on the historical Lincoln Highway, which was the first transcontinental highway for automobiles across the U.S.. Calamus is the only town in Olive Township and had a popul ...

, United States. It was listed on the

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 v ...

in 2000.

History

Gjert (George) Johnson was one of the three brothers who moved to Olive Township, Clinton County, Iowa in 1853. They were the first

Norwegians Norwegians ( no, nordmenn) are a North Germanic ethnic group and nation native to Norway, where they form the vast majority of the population. They share a common culture and speak the Norwegian language. Norwegians are descended from the N ...

to settle the area. George and his wife Britta Christensdatter had nine children and they purchased the land on which the house and surrounding farm sits in 1861. Their original house, no longer extant, was across the road. The family was charter members of the nearby Kvindherred Lutheran Church and donated the land for the cemetery. By 1879 George owned over of land, which made him one of the largest landowners in the township. with He built this house for over $7000. The Johnsons lived in this house from 1878, when it was built until 1882, when most of them moved to Norman County, Minnesota. One of the Johnson daughters remained behind with her husband, the Rev. J.J. Heie, who was the pastor at Kvindherred Church from 1900 to 1913. They continued to live in the house. It was sold, along with , to John Olson in 1913. Pastor Sheldahl lived in the house when he was at Kvindherred Church in the 1930s. Three sons of George Johnson's brother Arne (Aaron) bought the house in 1949. It remains a farmhouse.

Architecture

The George Johnson House is a 2½-story frame dwelling built on a coursed limestone foundation with a full basement. The entire structure is square and measures . The front entrance faces the road to the east. The enclosed porch with a

mansard roof A mansard or mansard roof (also called a French roof or curb roof) is a four-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterised by two slopes on each of its sides, with the lower slope, punctured by dormer windows, at a steeper angle than the upper. The ...

on the back of the house is original, but the front porch is not. The front porch features balustrades on the lower level and on the roof, which can be accessed from the second floor. The exterior is clad in tongue-and-groove pine siding that simulates

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

masonry. The window sills and hoods are boxed wood construction and made to look like solid stone. The house is capped with a concave mansard roof with dormers on the lower portion that rises to a flat portion with a

widow's walk A widow's walk, also known as a widow's watch or roofwalk, is a railed rooftop platform often having an inner cupola/turret frequently found on 19th-century North American coastal houses. The name is said to come from the wives of mariners, who ...

, which originally had a metal balustrade. Paired wooden brackets with pendants are located below the

eaves The eaves are the edges of the roof which overhang the face of a wall and, normally, project beyond the side of a building. The eaves form an overhang to throw water clear of the walls and may be highly decorated as part of an architectural styl ...

. Between the brackets is a row of dentils located above a paneled frieze. A rope mold separates the

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

zone from the rest of the wall section. The house is an unusual example of the Second Empire style found on an Iowa farmstead. It is also unusual for its use of wood siding to simulate ashlar masonry. The only other example in the state is the Lambrite-Iles-Petersen House in

Davenport Davenport may refer to: Places Australia *Davenport, Northern Territory, a locality * Hundred of Davenport, cadastral unit in South Australia **Davenport, South Australia, suburb of Port Augusta **District Council of Davenport, former local govern ...

. Its prominence is aided by its large size and its location on higher ground than the relatively flat surrounding farmland.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, George, House Houses completed in 1878 Houses in Clinton County, Iowa Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Clinton County, Iowa Second Empire architecture in Iowa