The 1842 Condell House

Sitting back from Fourth Street in Springfield, tucked next to the Mansion View Inn, sits a house with a long history. The home of John S. Condell for 55 years, it had several owners since his death, then sat empty for over 30 years, came close to demolition, was listed as one of Illinois’ most endangered historic sites in 2015, and now, 183 years old, has undergone a major transformation. Eight years of painstaking renovation has brought this home back to life. 

The Condell House, at 605 S. Fourth Street, was built in 1842 as an annex to the First Methodist Episcopal Church, then located downtown on the southeast corner of Fifth and Monroe, where the 12-story Ridgely Farmers State Bank building is now. The church annex was purchased by John Condell in 1852, after the Methodists made plans for a new brick building. The structure was dismantled and reassembled at the Fourth Street site for his residence. 

Condell owned a dry goods store in downtown Springfield. Mary Todd Lincoln frequently shopped at the store. She often told him she would have to wait to purchase material for a dress “until Mr. Lincoln was successful in a certain case,” as it was reported in Condell’s obituary (Aug. 18, 1907, Illinois State Journal).

Condell was born June 20, 1818, in County Carlo, Ireland. His parents brought the family to Philadelphia when John was a baby.

John, age 15, and his older brother, Thomas, age 26, left Philadelphia in 1833 “for Illinois which was then called The Far West,” John writes in his reminiscences, which can be read in full in the History of Sangamon County. (Excerpts are in italics.) They traveled by stagecoach from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh and then to Cincinnati, where they boarded a steamboat for St. Louis. “I was impressed by the wildness and grandeur of the scenery on the river…a peculiar stillness brooded over the scene, broken only by the splashing of the steamer’s wheel and the jolly song of the firemen…seldom was there any occasion for our boat to stop, except to ‘wood up.’ Then we would take a ramble through the wild woods, gathering nuts, grapes, plums, paw-paws and flowers.” From St. Louis, they again traveled by stagecoach, settling in Carrollton, 50 miles southwest of Springfield. 

While in Carrollton, the brothers opened a mercantile business and met Stephen A. Douglas, later U.S. senator and presidential candidate, who, Condell writes, “was traveling the circuit practicing law…often sitting upon the grounds in the courthouse eating watermelon with the guys and entertaining them with his versatile conversation.”

He also met Clark M. Smith. Years later, Condell and Smith would end up in Springfield, become business partners, and live near each other. 

Carrollton didn’t prove to be as successful as the Condell brothers had hoped, but at least Thomas had married and had a son, Moses, in 1839. By 1840 the brothers set off again, this time in a buggy, seeking a better spot for business, and visiting Decatur, Bloomington, Jacksonville and Springfield. In 1841 they chose Springfield as the ideal place to settle and opened Condell, Jones & Co. (John and Thomas Condell with Edward Jones) located on Hoffman’s Row in the 100 block of North Fifth Street, on the west side of the street, just north of the square, but not on the square. The store stood where the Springfield Art Association gallery is today in the former Broadwell Drug Store. By 1852, the store had moved to the north side of the square near Fifth and Washington and took on a new name, Condell, Stockdale & Co. An 1858 photo shows the store called New Cash Store. This site later became the location for Illinois National Bank. 

Goods had to be “transported from the East, wagoned over the mountains…then steamboats. We were dependent upon foreign markets …nearly all the goods we first sold were of English manufacture,” writes Condell. 

Abraham and Mary Lincoln shopped at Condell’s. So did Peter Cartwright, the well-known pioneer preacher who, Condell writes, “never wanted anything out of a store but a black silk cravat and a bandana silk pocket handkerchief.” The store sold dry goods, parasols, muslins, calicos, boots and bonnets. Condell describes the bonnets as “somewhat similar in size and shape to an inverted coal scuttle.”

Life on Fourth Street

John Condell married Arabella Rice in 1844.He writes, “I was married on the 27^th day of June 1844, to Miss Bell Rice, at the residence of her brother-in-law, Judge Samuel K. Swingley, six miles south of Springfield. In going to and returning from the wedding, we found all the prairie, from town to Lick Creek timber, covered with a sheet of water, and much of the way it was hub deep. That event proved to be the wisest proceeding of my life, and I close these recollections of the past by advising young men to go and do likewise.” 

Condell established himself as a strong member of the community. He was a Republican but never ran for office. He joined the Methodist Episcopal Church and built a prosperous business with his dry goods store. 

When Condell moved the church’s addition to Fourth Street in 1852, his neighbors included John Todd Stuart, Lincoln’s law partner who lived just north of him (site of the current Mansion View), and Christopher Columbus Brown, a prominent attorney.

What must Condell have thought, looking out from his one-story, simple frame house when, in 1855, a large Governor’s Mansion was built across the street and in 1856, another dry goods store owner, William Wardell, built a large home next door to his? Or when now former governor Joel Matteson, in 1857, built a mansion in the same block of Fourth to rival the governor’s home across the street? It was so large Mary Todd Lincoln called it “a palace.” The house burned down in 1873.

And, down the street to the south, on the northeast cornerof Fourth and Cook, Condell’s friend, C.M. Smith, whom he had met in Carrollton, built a large mansion in 1860. Smith had married Mary Todd Lincoln’s sister, Ann. They had been living at 603 S. Fifth, now the historic Vachel Lindsay home. 

Condell made changes to his home around 1875 by adding a front porch, a dormer, a rear wing, and window hoods that mirrored the Wardell home next door.

 Condell’s early friendship with C.M. Smith in Carrollton came full circle in Springfield. By 1857, Smith owned a dry goods store on Adams Street on the south side of the square. The Lincolns often shopped here. At one point Smith owned five stores in downtown Springfield – dry goods, clothing and shoe stores on Adams and a grocery and drug store on Sixth Street. In 1877 Luers bought half interest, and the store became Smith and Luers. 

By 1866, Condell had purchased an interest in the company. Condell is listed in the 1866 Springfield City Directory as a salesman at C.M. Smith and Co. on Fifth and Washington. After Smith died in 1885, the store was listed as doing $175,000 in a year in business. Condell continued with the business and later sold the building to the Illinois National Bank and accepted a position with the firm. 

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A large, influential family

John (1818-1907) and Arabella Condell (1820-1904) had six children, five of whom survived into adulthood. John Junior (1847-1914) by 1894 owned a store at 629 E. Adams that sold tinware, Acorn cookstoves (exclusive to his store in the city) and did roofing repair. He also served as sheriff from 1887 to 1902, as well as justice of the peace, performing many weddings. Wilbur Rice (1849-1901) became a doctor and, even after becoming paralyzed, continued to see patients. Ella (1855-1931) married George Lowry and moved to Nebraska. She and her sister, Arabella Jane (1851-1931) died only a few months apart in 1931. Alice (1875-1901) married and moved to Denver. 

Several sisters of John S. Condell Sr. came to Springfield: Sarah, Eliza, Ann (Peters), and Martha (Henkle). A brother, William, settled in Decatur and ran his own dry goods store, Condell and Jones. Sarah and Martha are both listed as present in the March 2, 1844, Minutes of the Female Missionary Society of the Methodist Church; Martha served as the secretary.

John and his wife, Arabella,must have witnessed a lot of activity during the 50-plus years they lived on Fourth Street,especially if they watched the goings-on over the years at the Governor’s Mansion: visits by Frederick Douglass (1872), Ulysses S. Grant (1874), Gov. Shelby Cullom hosting President Rutherford B. Hayes (1879), a huge crowd for the inauguration and wedding of Gov. John Tanner (1897), remodeling of the Governor’s Mansion in 1889 and 1897, and the visit from President Theodore Roosevelt during the term of Gov. Richard Yates (1901). 

Arabella Condell died in 1904 at the age of 84. Three years later, in February 1907, Condell fell and dislocated his shoulder; a few months later he fell and dislocated his hip. When he did not heal at home, he was hospitalized at St. John’s Hospital. He died Aug. 17, 1907, at the age of 89, still residing at the home on Fourth. Three of his children were living at his death: Arabella “Bell” (who lived at the house on Fourth Street), Ella (Mrs. George W. Lowry) of Lincoln, Nebraska, and John S. Jr.

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Old obituaries often provide details about a person. Condell’s obituary mentions he wore glasses, and adds, “One thing marvelous about Mr. Condell was the fact that his eyesight always remained good, and while he used spectacles to read, yet he could peruse a book of the finest print for hours without showing fatigue. His memory was also good, and he could remember dates and facts from the earliest time.”

He lost his hearing 10 years before he died. Again, from the obituary, “This caused him great annoyance because he was unable to hear a person talking at a moderate tone of voice. But he never complained. He was ever seeing the bright side of life.” He loved having children come to his house, where he told them stories of his travels and his friendship with Lincoln.

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Thomas, brother of John Sr., also had an interesting life in Springfield. His home stood at Sixth and Washington. He worked at the store until 1855 and then served as the president of the Springfield Marine and Fire Insurance Company, later developing into Marine Bank. He owned 6,000 acres in Kansas, where he died in 1880. His marriage to Elizabeth Bledsoe produced four children. One son, Moses (1839-1914), married Helen Edwards, the daughter of Judge Benjamin S. Edwards, and granddaughter of Gov. Ninian Edwards. He and Helen had seven children including Thomas (1863-1929) and Eliza (1872-1975). 

Cinda Ackerman Klickna is a frequent contributor to Illinois Times.

This article appears in October 16-22, 2025.