The Frederick B. Townsend House is located in the DeKalb County, Illinois

DeKalb County, Illinois

DeKalb County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 105,160, which is an increase of 18.2% from 88,969 in 2000. Its county seat is Sycamore. DeKalb County is part of the Chicago metropolitan statistical area.-History:DeKalb County...

 county seat of Sycamore

Sycamore, Illinois

Sycamore is a city in DeKalb County, Illinois, United States. It has a commercial district based and centered on Illinois Route 64. The population was 17,519 at the 2010 census, up from 12,020 at the 2000 census.-Early settlement:...

. The home is within the boundaries of the Sycamore Historic District. The district was designated and listed on the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

 in May 1978. The Queen Anne style home was designed and constructed in 1890 or 1892 by the same architect and general contractor responsible for Altgeld Hall at Northern Illinois University

Northern Illinois University

Northern Illinois University is a state university and research institution located in DeKalb, Illinois, with satellite centers in Hoffman Estates, Naperville, Rockford, and Oregon. It was originally founded as Northern Illinois State Normal School on May 22, 1895 by Illinois Governor John P...

 and the nearby DeKalb County Courthouse

DeKalb County Courthouse (Illinois)

The DeKalb County Courthouse is located in the county seat of DeKalb County, Illinois, U.S.A., the city of Sycamore. The Classical Revival structure sits on a square facing Illinois Route 64 as it passes through the city. The current courthouse was constructed in 1905 amid controversy over where...

, as well as the courthouse in Lee County.

Frederick B. Townsend

Frederick B. Townsend was born in Malta Township, DeKalb County, Illinois

Malta Township, DeKalb County, Illinois

Malta Township is one of nineteen townships in DeKalb County, Illinois, USA. As of the 2000 census, its population was 1,402. Malta Township was originally formed as Etna Township from a portion of DeKalb Township in September, 1856; it was renamed to to Malta Township in December 1858...

 in 1858. This native son belonged to an elite family tree that included such prominent residents as Daniel Pierce

Daniel Pierce

Daniel Pierce was an American banker.Pierce lived in Sycamore, Illinois. In 1867 he founded the bank Daniel Pierce & Co., today known as The National Bank & Trust Company....

, his maternal great-grandfather, who founded the National Bank & Trust Co. in 1867. Townsend married Mary Boynton, the daughter of a lender and land speculator in 1890. They eventually became parents to Charles and Eleanor. Eleanor Townsend married Thomas H. Roberts of Clinton Township in 1920. Roberts would go on to found DeKalb Ag, a company later known as DeKalb Genetics Corp. and bearer of the famous corn ear DeKalb logo. That company merged with Monsanto Company in 1998.

Townsend was active as a local community leader and served in a variety of positions. At one time or another Townsend was mayor of Sycamore, county judge and instrumental in keeping Sycamore the DeKalb County seat when the courthouse was reconstructed in the early 20th Century.

History

Local legend has it that the house was given as a dowry

Dowry

A dowry is the money, goods, or estate that a woman brings forth to the marriage. It contrasts with bride price, which is paid to the bride's parents, and dower, which is property settled on the bride herself by the groom at the time of marriage. The same culture may simultaneously practice both...

 of sorts to Frederick Townsend and his new bride, Mary Boynton, by her father, Charles O. Boynton, in 1890. However, newspaper articles from 1892 indicate that the mansion was new at that time.

Architecture

The Townsend House, much like the Townsend Garage

Frederick Townsend Garage

The Frederick Townsend Garage is located in Sycamore, Illinois and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Sycamore Historic District. It sits at the base of a small incline overlooked by the large Queen Anne style Townsend House. Last a gas station, the building has...

, a short distance from the mansion, incorporates granite

Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

 boulders collected from Townsend's many DeKalb County farms. Unlike the Garage, however, only the lower portion of the house and porch facade and the foundation utilizes the boulders. The large granite porch

Porch

A porch is external to the walls of the main building proper, but may be enclosed by screen, latticework, broad windows, or other light frame walls extending from the main structure.There are various styles of porches, all of which depend on the architectural tradition of its location...

 wraps around the house from the front door, the porch includes a porte-cochere

Porte-cochere

A porte-cochère is the architectural term for a porch- or portico-like structure at a main or secondary entrance to a building through which a horse and carriage can pass in order for the occupants to alight under cover, protected from the weather.The porte-cochère was a feature of many late 18th...

 and is topped with wooden pillar

Column

A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a vertical structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. For the purpose of wind or earthquake engineering, columns may be designed to resist lateral forces...

s. Transoms

Transom (architectural)

In architecture, a transom is the term given to a transverse beam or bar in a frame, or to the crosspiece separating a door or the like from a window or fanlight above it. Transom is also the customary U.S. word used for a transom light, the window over this crosspiece...

 of leaded

Leaded glass

Leaded glass may refer to:*Lead glass, potassium silicate glass which has been impregnated with a small amount of lead oxide in its fabrication...

 or stained glass

Stained glass

The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...

 can found on many of the first floor windows. A balcony

Balcony

Balcony , a platform projecting from the wall of a building, supported by columns or console brackets, and enclosed with a balustrade.-Types:The traditional Maltese balcony is a wooden closed balcony projecting from a...

 is on the second floor where the structure has a multi-gabled roof. Both the east and south gables have large Palladian windows. The south gable

Gable

A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of a sloping roof. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system being used and aesthetic concerns. Thus the type of roof enclosing the volume dictates the shape of the gable...

 has what has been termed an "M-roof." The enclosed turret

Turret

In architecture, a turret is a small tower that projects vertically from the wall of a building such as a medieval castle. Turrets were used to provide a projecting defensive position allowing covering fire to the adjacent wall in the days of military fortification...

 is capped with a conical roof and is accessible only from the home's attic

Attic

An attic is a space found directly below the pitched roof of a house or other building . Attic is generally the American/Canadian reference to it...

.