The Chauncey Ellwood House is a 19th century Italianate residence 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...

 city of Sycamore. It is a contributing property

Contributing property

In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing resource or contributing property is any building, structure, or object which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic district, listed locally or federally, significant...

 to the Sycamore Historic District

Sycamore Historic District

The Sycamore Historic District is a meandering area encompassing of the land in and around the downtown of the DeKalb County, Illinois, county seat, Sycamore. The area includes historic buildings and a number of historical and Victorian homes...

; added to 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 1978. The house is in the 800 block of Somonauk Street. The Esther Mae Nesbitt House, next door, was once the carriage house

Carriage house

A carriage house, also called remise or coach house, is an outbuilding which was originally built to house horse-drawn carriages and the related tack.In Great Britain the farm building was called a Cart Shed...

 for the home.

House

The Chauncey Ellwood House is designed in Italianate style, today, painted a distinctive red color. A large pond occupies the backyard and the Esther Mae Nesbitt House lies adjacent; to the northwest of the house. The house bears a full-length front 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...

 supported by four bracket

Bracket

Brackets are tall punctuation marks used in matched pairs within text, to set apart or interject other text. In the United States, "bracket" usually refers specifically to the "square" or "box" type.-List of types:...

ed wooden column

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. On the front wall of the Chauncey Ellwood House two additional wooden supports are anchored at either end of the porch. A small triangular pediment

Pediment

A pediment is a classical architectural element consisting of the triangular section found above the horizontal structure , typically supported by columns. The gable end of the pediment is surrounded by the cornice moulding...

 overhangs the front stairs. The current front porch is not an original. Photographs taken between 1971 and 1975 show that the original porch stretched not only the entire length of the front facade but continued around the house the full length of the north face. In the older set up the stairs were set at the far south end of the house instead of centered, as they are today.

Chauncey Ellwood

Chauncey Ellwood was the older brother of barbed wire entrepreneur Isaac Ellwood, a resident of nearby DeKalb, Illinois

DeKalb, Illinois

DeKalb is a city in DeKalb County, Illinois, United States. The population was 43,862 at the 2010 census, up from 39,018 at the 2000 census. The city is named after decorated German war hero Johann De Kalb, who died during the American Revolutionary War....

. Ellwood was an attorney, merchant and, for a time, mayor 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:...

.

Grounds

The folklore

Folklore

Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...

 of the Potawatomi

Potawatomi

The Potawatomi are a Native American people of the upper Mississippi River region. They traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, a member of the Algonquian family. In the Potawatomi language, they generally call themselves Bodéwadmi, a name that means "keepers of the fire" and that was applied...

 tribe, which inhabited the area, held that the natural pond in the backyard was once a watering hole for native buffalo

American buffalo

American buffalo is the colloquial name for the American bison.American Buffalo may refer to:*American Buffalo , a play by David Mamet*American Buffalo , a 1996 film of Mamet's play*American Buffalo , a United States coin...

before the herds moved further west. During the 20th century the pond became known as Patten's Pond.