D.D. Collins House

Built 1845, the D.D. Collins House is one of the only Greek Revival Cottages in southern Illinois. It was built by the cousin of the founders of Collinsville, and still maintains many of its original features. Local lore suggests that the first-floor joist comes from a steamboat that was stranded in the Cahokia Mounds in 1844. The structure has been well-preserved and was added to the National Register in 2002 for its unique and historically-significant Greek Revival Architecture.

The Daniel Dove Collins House, located at 621 West Main Street in Collinsville, was built in 1845 by Daniel Dove Collins for his wife, Elizabeth Anderson Collins. The house, originally located at Main and Center Streets, is built in the Greek Revival style, which was popular between 1820 and 1850. The Greek Revival architectural style is characterized by the use of columns, narrow windows around the front door, two long vertical panels on all the doors, six-over-six windows, and a center hall connecting the front and back doors. With the D.D. Collins House, it is also a rare example of a Greek Revival cottage, as there are no other homes like it in either Collinsville, or southern Illinois. As local lore goes, the main floor joist for the first floor may have been salvaged from a steamboat stranded on one of the Cahokia Mounds during the flood of 1844. The D.D. Collins house has round Roman Doric columns that have the requisite base, which makes them Roman instead of Greek Doric. All of the windows in the house are twelve pane, most having the original upper six pane construction with the lower window being replaced by one pane, probably caused by slamming and breaking over the past 150 years. The door enframement is a plain lintel entablature with a full transom light with three sidelights. The door is single and the entire surround is simple with no elaboration of the enframement. It also represents the rare Greek Revival subtype “full-façade porch”, characterized by a low-pitched gabled or hipped roof, wide band of trim on the cornice line, a porch supported by columns, six-pane glazing, and door surrounds with narrow sidelights and rectangular transoms.

• Interesting fact: Daniel Dove Collins was the cousin of the Collins brothers, founders of Collinsville and also the first president of the then-village Board of Trustees, and held board meetings in the house.

Research prepared and Written by Madelyn Knight

Uploaded on behalf of Madison County Historical Society by Kiley Fuchs

https://www.collinsvilleil.org/community/collins-park/national-register; http://hpa.illinois.gov/PDFs/105496.pdf ; https://www.friendsoftheddcollinshouse.org/