J.A. Mingers Residence

Location
201 Locust Street
Minonk, Illinois

Project Status
House was torn down in 1979

Project Date/s
Decorations 1910

J.A. Mingers’ house in Minonk, Illinois, was constructed in 1896-1898. According to two postcards sent by John Mallin to his wife, he was working on this house in October of 1910. One of the postcards includes a photo of the exterior of the house. Another photo owned by Mallin shows a different exterior view of the house. Mallin would have been working on interior decorations of the house, but unfortunately, no photos of the house interiors are known to exist. At the time he was working on this house, Mallin was an independent contractor.

Mrs. Goodwin was the sister of Albert Mingers, and had a house built at the same time as her brother with the same floor plan, at 435 Locust Street.

Albert Mingers’ house is described on the website Minonktalk, Mingers Home:

“It had the same floor plan as the other Mingers’ home built at the southeast corner of Locust and Fifth which is now used as the Victorian Oaks Bed and Breakfast. Albert Mingers was an associate of Mr. C. R. Danforth of the Minonk State Bank. Shortly after Mr. Danforth’s death, Mr. Mingers retired and moved to Long Beach, CA where his descendants still live.”

“This home eventually became the site of the Woodard County TB Sanitarium. In 1953 Don Kirkton bought the home and started the Kirkton Nursing Home. In 1966 a new facility was built to the south of the old Mingers home and the patients were moved from the old home to the new facility which was called Minonk Manor. The Mingers home then became a shelter care and eventually closed. It was torn down in 1979 and eventually became the site of the present Simater Home for sheltered care.”

The website Minonktalk Mrs. John Goodwin House, describes the work done on Mrs. Goodwin’s house:

“A large part of the work on the home was done by artisans from Chicago, since financial panics in 1893 and 1895 had sent many city workmen into rural areas to seek employment.”

When J. A. Mingers’ house was decorated in 1910, they may have used some of the same Chicago artisans used in Mrs. Goodwin’s house in 1896-1898, with the addition of John Mallin.

References

Minonk Talk Mingers Home.
Minonk Talk. Mrs. John Goodwin House.