Keet-McElhany House - Springfield, Missouri
Posted by: 
BruceS
N 37° 12.419 W 093° 17.324
15S E 474379 N 4117873
Historic Victorian style house in Springfield, Missouri.
Waymark Code: WMD3AD
Location: Missouri, United States
Date Posted: 11/13/2011
Views: 4
"The Keet-McElhany House is a two story brick house with a frame attic story. The house was constructed in 1881 as a fairly typical 2 story, T-shaped Italianate house with a shallow hipped roof and a small 2 story service wing at the rear. The house was sold to James E. Keet in 1883. Mr. Keet enlarged the house in 1886, adding the turreted one story wing to the west and adding a brick service building of 1½ stories with basement about 10 feet beyond the servis wing. He further remodeled the house prior to his death in 1900 by raising the brick wall and adding a third floor undr a multi-gabled and hipped Queen Anne roof. The Italianate porch was enlarged and a projecting pedimented gable constructed over the steps and also a projection pedimented gable was added at the intersection of the south and east port roofline. Applied plaster relief ornament was used for porch posts and railings...
The Keet-McElanhny House has been the house of a prominent Springfield family for over 100 years. The Keet, the EcElanhny and the Holland families were all important merchants and bankers in early Springfield history. The Holland Banking Company was founded by C.B. Holland, the uncle of Katherine Holland who married James E. Keet. Josiah T. Keet, James E.'s father, was a partner in the Keet-Roundtree Dry Goods Company. James E. Keet was vice president of the Springfield Grocery Company, president of the Springfield Guarantee Abstract Company, president of the Green County National Bank and National Exchange Bank, secretary-treasurer of the Keet-Roundtree Shoe Company and director of that Springfield company. His daughter married Claude McElhany, who was the grandson of Robert J. McElanhy, a merchant and bank in Springfield prior to the Civil War.
The Keet-McElhany House embodies the radically different architectural trends that mergeed so quickly in the last two decades of the 19th century. Starting with the simple dignity of the plain vernacular expression of the Italianate style, already fading out of fashion when it was built in 1881, remodeling enlarged the house with the addition of an eclectic wing with Gothic, Second Empire and some Queen Ann and Eastlake elements and a new service building. Machined decorative carving, cast iron cresting, decorative brick corbeling, creating a false dormer, the turred room with the Italianate cornice, make this addition an unusual collection of architectural idioms. The final alteration capped the structure with a Queen Ann style multi-gabled roof and added applied plaster embellishments in lieu of older hand-crafted detailing. The final appearance of this house chronicles the rapid changes in architectural tastes and techniques of the end of the Victorian Era." - National Register Nomination
After being vacant for a period of time the house was restored and converted to professional offices.
Public/Private: Private
Tours Available?: No
Year Built: 1881
Web Address: [Web Link]
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