Springfield resident John Oxford once restored a 1,500-square-foot house built in 1903. He has now taken on a much bigger project as the new owner of the 8,600-square-foot red brick, Italianate mansion at Eighth and Cook streets, which was built in 1865.
“This will be a much larger undertaking,” he said. “I’m newly married, and my wife and I wanted something with sweat equity.”
Oxford purchased the 12-bedroom, eight-bathroom, three-story house in June for $49,000. The property, which has been vacant for well over a decade, was described in the sale listing as being in “distressed condition” and requiring “an extensive full interior restoration.”
Oxford, 29, owns and operates a nearby business, A Cheap Tire and Auto Repair at 13th and Cook streets. He said, “I kept driving by the house and realized how beautiful it is and thought it would be nice to get it back to its original glory.”
He predicts the work will take at least two years, and he hopes to create apartments in the former mansion.
“It is a bit overwhelming, because the house is filled with both junk and antiques,” Oxford said. There are more than 30 couches, plus lamps, newspapers, magazines, refrigerators and cabinets full of items – “about everything you can think of is in the house,” he said.
The house stands just a block from the historic Elijah Iles house at Seventh and Cook streets. It was the home of Dr. Henry Wohlgemuth, who influenced Springfield in his work as a physician, city alderman and longtime president of Oak Ridge Cemetery.
Wohlgemuth was born in Hanover, Germany, in 1822 and had begun studying medicine at the age of 16, about the same time his father died. In 1845, he, along with his mother and siblings, emigrated to the U.S. Coming alone to Springfield, then a town of 3,000 people, he set up a medical practice.
Wohlgemuth married Mary Elizabeth Wolgamot in 1849, and through the years they had eight children. He also returned to medical study in 1854 and graduated from the Eclectic Medical Institute in Cincinnati, Ohio. Later, he became the first president of the Illinois Eclectic Medical Association.
Springfield once had a city physician, and Wohlgemuth served in this capacity from 1856-1861. When the position was combined with the county physician, Wohlgemuth was appointed to the expanded role and served from 1861-1863. Ads in the local newspaper listed him as a “German and Eclectic Physician; Surgeon and Accoucheur, President of Eclectic Medical College” (accoucheur refers to an obstetrician).
By the time he turned 50 in 1872, he was the longest practicing physician in Springfield, and by 1881, the oldest physician in the county. Wohlgemuth continued his practice until 1905. His 1869 assessment of the health of the 22,000 residents of Springfield reported that there had only been 384 deaths during the year and so Springfield was “healthy.”
Wohlgemuth’s work as a doctor was just one of his many roles that helped improve Springfield. He was passionate about developing Oak Ridge Cemetery into the world-renowned cemetery it is today, as the second-most visited cemetery in the nation. Starting in 1864, he served on the board of managers for Oak Ridge, and then served several terms as president (1866-1870, 1873-1875 and 1878) until his death in 1905.
Wohlgemuth helped turn the Oak Ridge area from wilderness into a beautiful, park-like setting. He kept records and advocated for its continual development. Some of this work included incorporating the cemetery from the city of Springfield to the board of the cemetery (1869), building a gatekeeper lodge (1879) and working to move graves from the Hutchinson Cemetery (now where Springfield High School stands) to an area of Oak Ridge. No doubt, Wohlgemuth attended the dedication of the cemetery in 1860; it is believed Abraham Lincoln also attended.
During the same time, Wohlgemuth also served as an alderman (1863-1865) and on the Board of Education at a time when Springfield schools had an enrollment of 2,350 students (1866).
In 1865, he was appointed the head of the Water Commission and was instrumental in setting up the Springfield Water Works. Work had started as early as 1859 when an artesian well was dug at Washington and 19th streets, but even with digging down 1,100 feet, nothing was found.
Talk, but little action, had occurred over the years, but under Wohlgemuth’s direction, 30 acres of land (where Lanphier High School stands) was purchased in 1866 for a new reservoir to access water from the Sangamon River. This was completed in 1868 at a cost of $460,000, and Springfield was hailed as the second Illinois city after Chicago to have “pure water,” somewhat a misnomer due to occasions of pollution from various businesses and distilleries in the city.
Wohlgemuth practiced medicine until May 22, 1905, and died just a few months later.
Oxford has already begun work on the mansion, making it weather tight, patching up some brickwork and hauling out some of the items inside. He plans to do some of the work himself and also call upon friends and experts. The house will require updating the electrical system, replacing windows and the heating and air conditioning system, plus remodeling it into apartments.
“I just thought it would be a shame to see this house sit empty,” Oxford said.
Cinda Ackerman Klickna applauds those who have taken on historic preservation and has written about the Marbold House in Greenview, the Condell house on Fourth Street and many others.
This article appears in August 6-12, 2026.
