265 DOUGLAS AVENUE

HISTORIC SIGNIFICANCE

P. J. Kimball Jr. platted his third addition to Elgin in 1854. The north 54 feet of Lot 1 in Block 1 remained vacant until the Nelson Rogers House was built around 1884. The house that currently stands on the rear of the lot was the main part the original house, numbered 165 Douglas Avenue (now 265 Douglas). When the current apartments were built in 1910, the old house was moved to the back of the lot.

Prior to the 1894 street address re-numbering the house was listed as 165 Douglas Avenue. The house was built c.1884 for Nelson Rogers. The address first appears in the 1884-85 Elgin City Directory. The house does not appear in the 1880 aerial view of Elgin, nor is Nelson Rogers listed in the 1881-82 City Directory. Although the house had already been built, on October 16, 1886, Nelson and Sarah took out a mortgage for $500. They again borrowed money in 1892, and again in 1897.

Nelson was born on April 30, 1834 in New York. His wife, Sarah nee Pruden Rogers was born in 1836 in New York, as were her parents. The 1860 census lists Sarah and Nelson, and a son, Eugene, age seven months. They had two more children, Sherman born in 1865 and Fred born in 1867. According to the 1880 census, they lived at “165” Douglas Avenue in Elgin with Fred age 13 and Sherman age 14. Sarah died in 1902, with her husband, Nelson retaining ownership until 1904 when the house passed onto their living children, Eugene and Fred. Fred transferred his share to Eugene by means of a quit claim deed in 1904.

On May 9, 1908, Eugene sold the property to James Howie.

ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE

The current structure is a two-story cross gabled vernacular building. The house appears on the 1887 Sanborn Fire Insurance map as a frame building two stories high, with two wings on the rear, and an open half-width porch on the south end of the west elevation. There was a two-story accessory frame structure, a barn, on the northeast corner of the lot. No alterations appear on the 1891 map. By 1897, an additional small accessory structure appears along the north boundary of the lot. This is still present on the 1903 map. In the March 11, 1910 Elgin Daily News Article, “the old Rogers homestead at 265 Douglas...will be moved onto the rear of the lot where a barn now stands. The barn will be razed.” This was to make way for The Howie Flats built in 1910.

Sources: 2019 Heritage Plaque Application; Audio: TextAloud