Columbus Wallace House in Crystal Lake, IL - Cobblestone Buildings on Waymarking.com

This is a beautiful, well maintained cobblestone house in Crystal Lake, IL. I don't know the history of this building, but now it's home to the Alano Club of Crystal Lake. This house has lots of architectural details. The cobbles vary in color and spacing. I've driven past this place so many times and never realized it was a cobblestone building, until I started waymarking!

1/1812012 I found more info on this awesome structure.

Columbus Wallace House
36 North Virginia Avenue
Built circa 1851

Crystal Lake’s oldest standing home was constructed by stonemason Andrew Simons (1829-1892) for Columbus Wallace (1812-1907) and his wife Hannah Beardsley (1818-1894). It is one of two surviving cobble stone houses attributed to Mr. Simons. The smooth stones came all the way from the shore of Lake Michigan. Grain was shipped to Waukegan by ox cart and the stones were brought back on the return trip. It was a three-day journey roundtrip.
The foot-thick masonry walls of the Wallace house help keep the interior cool in the summer and warm in the winter. The stones were carefully set in lime mortar (ingredients: 8 or 9 bushels coarse sand to one bushel lime) so that all stones show approximately the same profile. Originally the house was heated by stoves rather than a fireplace. Also noteworthy are the floor joists exposed in the basement which were hand hewn rather than saw-cut and are fastened with wrought iron spikes rather than cut steel or wire nails.

City, Town, Village Name: Crystal Lake, ILL Building Usage: Alano Club Architectural style: not sure Public or Private: Public Tours Available?: no Website: Not listed

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Date Logged Log   04/27/2013 Aiwendil67 visited it