HISTORY OF THE VILLA
The
Museum of Victorian Life and Joliet History was first simply just known
as "the home of Hiram and Mrs. Scutt on Broadway street". That was the
way everyone knew their home that way or in a less auspicious home it
would have been known as 206 North Broadway Street. The people did not
refer to their homes as estates, or any thing more. In fact many of
the large homes were referred to as farms. Many of these homes, built
overlooking Bluff Street and the Canal with all of the activity of the
city. Mr. Scutt was originally from Long Island, New York. He did Serve
in the Civil War with a statement from a member of an Illinois Battery
writing of Mr. Scutt when both were in a hospital after both were
wounded. It is also known Mr. Scutt was in DeKalb but that time is
vague. He did return to Long Island to marry his sweet heart return to
Joliet, lived on Cagwin Street about five blocks away where he lived
while his house on Broadway was constructed.
The grounds of his home were expansive and included barns where his horses lived and grazed on the grounds. This was a country house for him, his wife and his son. Bluff
Street, on both sides of the street and both sides of the canal was the
area of industry. There were mills both wood and steel, stables, coach works, hotels
(where even President Lincoln stayed, brewies, dressmakers, and
every kind of work businesses you could imagine. A bank on the east
bank of the canal was the last business standing along the banks of the
canal. Broadway had it's own history of which some still remains. The
stone vernacular Greek revival teetering ever so precariously at the
edge of Western and Broadway housed Governor Joel Mattson who lived in
Joliet and who there was no record of until Magosky searched who lived
in this impressive home so early. There was the German Lutheran
school, small Greek revivals, The large home next to the Scutt home
where the man who not only was mayor, founder or the fire department,
and innovator of Soda Pop, J.D. Paige, the beautiful stone Greek
Orthodox church, the last commercial limestone building, and on through
the next block. Mr. Scutt was a mere 39 years old when he originally requested Hugo
Boehme to design a large residence for him on this site but artistic
differences reared their heads and eventually James Weese designed the
building we see and visit today. It is very clearly designed by James
Weese as he was widely known for his master of the Italianete and
American or Second Empire. This is his best example and it is his best
remaining example of that design. It is honored by being placed not
only on the Joliet Register of Historic Places but on the National
Register of Historic Places for both its design, its connection to the
progress of Joliet, the development of barbed wire, and in the life of
a great entrepreneur, Hiram B. Scutt. Mr. Scutt was a multi millionaire when his home was built as were many
of his neighbors. The unique form of the arches are the same unique
shape as the tunnel to the chambers to the area where the Templar
Knight, De Molay was held captive for years. If you aim your camera
proper it looks as if you are taking your photo through a special
bottle or jar.
Many of the homes remaining on the block were designed James Weese and
only a few by Hugo Boehme. We have been researching the records of the
original owners back as far as we can.
