"Built in 1863 or 1864, the Amos Catlin Spafford House in Rockford, Illinois
is a successful amalgamation of the picturesque revival styles that flourished
throughout mid-nineteenth-century America. Its asymmetrical massing in
general -- and three-story tower in particular -- are characteristic of the
Italian Villa style, but steeply-pitched gable roofs and a prominently-featured
wall dormer suggest the Gothic Revival as well. Exterior ornament reflects
this same marriage of styles. Paired round-headed windows and the tower's
bracketed projecting eaves are quintessentially Italianate. Gothicized
elements include an entrance porch and veranda with beveled posts and trefoil
ornament, richly-carved flared bargeboards, decorative pinnacles and elaborate
chimneys. A bracketed canopy with tracery balustrade happily embodies both
idioms. And the mansard-like concave hip roof atop the tower presages yet
a third mode, the Franco-American or Second Empire.
The house is constructed of yellow brick, said to have been brought from
Milwaukee by bullock cart. The tower, corner veranda, kitchen wing, and
several small additions obscure what is in essence a simple L-shaped plan.
A parlor and dining room to one side of the central hall retain original white
marble fireplaces. The original staircase stands beneath an octagonal
skylight. Interior wood and plaster trim is original and in excellent
condition. Several oriental rugs and other furnishings (including a
magnificent gilt mirror frame over the parlor mantle) are also original to the
house...
While the Amos Catlin Spafford House is surely one of Rockford's most
striking -- and best preserved -- examples of the picturesque movement in
American architecture, it is primarily significant for its historical
association with six generations of the Spafford family, instrumental in the
growth and development of Rockford since 1839...
A native of Jefferson County, New York, Amos Catlin Spafford was one of three
brothers who traveled to Rockford by canal boat, Lake steamer, and team in the
fall of 1839. For several years young Spafford worked as a farmer, than as
a sawyer, then as a merchant. His real rise to prominence, however, began
in 1854, when he founded a private banking firm with C.C. Briggs and David
Penfield. In 1864 this was reorganized as the Third National Bank of
Rockford and Spafford became the first president. He served in this
capacity until his death in 1897.
As head of one of one of the city's major financial institutions, Spafford
played a key role in Rockford's rapid growth as a manufacturing center. He
was instrumental, for example, in the creation of the Kenosha and Rockford
Railroad. Son George served as president of the bank (one of two in
Rockford to survive the Great Depression) from 1906 to 1943. (The bank was
renamed the First National Bank of Rockford in 1958)
Spafford's daughter Jessie was a Rockford personage in her own right.
Educated at Vassar College, the University of Chicago and the Polytechnic
Institute in Zurich, Switzerland, Jessie Spafford returned to her native city to
become head of the mathematics and physics department at Rockford College.
She later served as vice-president of the Third National until her death in 1952
at the age of 90.
Father and daughter were among the most public spirited of Rockford's
citizens. Amos Spafford was a founder of the First Congregational Church
and held a variety of township and municipal offices. Jennie Spafford was
the first woman president of the Rockford School Board. Together, they
played an important role in founding the Boy's Club, the Rockford Woman's Club,
the Community Chest, and Montague House, the city's first settlement house.
Small wonder, then, that local historian Charles Church should describe the
Spafford family in 1916 as "one of the best and most highly respected in the
county." ~
National Register Nomination Form
The house and expansive grounds are surrounded by a iron fence.