Emmert-Zippel House: Old Six Mile Museum

The Emmert-Zippel House is a two-story clapboard I-house built c. 1837-1848 with later updates from the 1880s. It is located at 3279 Maryville Road, Granite City, Illinois, in Madison County. The Emmert-Zippel House, also known as the Old Six Mile Museum, is a prime example of a mid 19th-century rural farm I-house. The house is also one of the few remaining rural farm I-houses in the Six Mile Community left standing and in original condition. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.

The Emmert-Zippel House has a central entrance. There are five bays across the north front of the original house and two bays on the east side of the house. There are no openings on the west side. A plain cornice and frieze run around the roofline of the house. The steep-pitched, gabled roofs, covered with asphalt shingles, has three chimneys. There is one at each end of the side-gabled roof on the original house and on the south end of the kitchen ell. The foundation of the original house has rough-cut limestone set in irregular courses. The kitchen ell has a brick foundation. Narrow wood clapboards cover the original house and kitchen ell. There are corner boards on all corners of the house and a plain wood water table. Windows on the original house are one-over-one while on the kitchen ell are two-over-two.

The one-bay front façade porch has turned posts at the corners and at the steps to support the porch roof. Delicate spindles are located near the ceiling of the porch. The front entry door has an upper oval glass panel. Below the glass, are two small inset wood panels and a large rectangular inset wood panel. A small glass transom is located above the door. Above the entry porch on the second story is a one-over-one window that replaced a door that was used to enter the second-story porch.

The west elevation of the original house has no openings except for the basement entry. The first story south elevation of the original house has two windows to the west and a rear entry door to the central hall. This paneled door has an upper glass panel and two lower vertical wood panels. A rectangular transom is located above the doorway. On the second story are two windows.

The west elevation of the kitchen ell has a one-story porch which was added in the late 1880s. The porch extends along the south elevation of the original house. The back entrance to the center hall is off this porch. The porch has turned posts. Beginning at the north first story west elevation on the kitchen ell is a doorway to a staircase that leads to the hired man’s room. Next to it is a four-paneled wood door opening into the kitchen. Above on the second story are two windows.

The south elevation of the kitchen ell has an entryway to the kitchen. It has a four-paneled wood door. No other openings are located at this elevation. The east elevation includes the kitchen ell and the original house to the north. There are four windows on the first story and four windows on the second story of the east elevation. Two single-pane basement windows are located in the east elevation. There are no door openings on either level of the east elevation.

The 1.75-acre site includes a picket and board fence along the northeast boundary of the property. Maryville Road runs north and south along the east edge of the property. A brick wall is located northwest of the smokehouse. A graveled parking lot for museum visitors lies to the south of the garage and summer kitchen. To the west is a large grass area with some deciduous and fruit trees. Plans are being made to plant fruit trees in this area where William Emmert’s orchard was located.

As settlement spread into Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa, many settlers built simple side-gabled, two-story-high, two rooms wide, and one-room deep houses that could later be expanded with rear addition. This type was based on traditional British folk forms. Because this house was one of the dominant types of housing used in Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa, it was called the I-house. The two-story I-house was common throughout the country.

Within the arrival of the railroads, light-weight lumber became available. Light framing was simple to construct and could be adapted to span two-room depths. The I-house became popular in the midwestern states because of the long winters which made large houses more of a necessity. The two-story, post-railroad I-houses were made elaborate with porches, chimneys, and rear extensions.

The I-house became a popular housing type for local carpenters and builders to erect. It was rectangular and was built according to the general dimensions used for that style. I-houses could have three-, four-, five-, or six-bay front façade patterns. The Report of the Commissioner of Patents for the Year 1859 included a quote from the United States Commissioner of patents, “In houses with five windows on the front, upstairs, all placed at equal distances, and four windows and a central door below, we have what is by many considered the perfection of regularity and order.” (p.431)

The I-house type “symbolized prosperity and respectability both among farmers and among businessmen and professionals.” (Common Houses in America’s Small Towns: The Atlantic Seaboard to the Mississippi Valley, p. 120-121.) The popularity of the I-House reflected both folk and popular culture as it was used by builders almost everywhere in the United States in the mid to late nineteenth century. (ibid, p. 121) I-Houses could have some architectural detailing based on popular styles of the time including Greek Revival, Gothic Revival, or Italianate styles.

The Emmert-Zippel House, also known as the Old Six Mile Museum, is a prime example of a mid 19th-century rural farm I-house. The house is also one of the few remaining rural farm I-houses in the Six Mile Community left standing and in original condition.

Researched and Written by Madelyn Knight

Uploaded on behalf of the Madison County Historical Society by Kiley Fuchs

http://hpa.illinois.gov/PDFs/201045.pdf ; https://madcohistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/2018-Vol6-No4-Jul-Old-Six-Mile-Museum.pdf ; https://aboutstlouis.com/local/museums/old-six-mile-museum-in-the-emmert-zippel-house