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Marbold Farmstead
Route 29/State St.,
Greenview
(Menard County)
This ornate brick farmhouse and its many outbuildings
once stood at the heart of over 4000 acres of Marbold
family holdings in Menard County. Today it serves as a
reminder of the ambitions of our early immigrant
families and the prosperity that farming brought to
central Illinois over the last 150 years. Vacant for
over 10 years and stripped of its interiors, a group of
local citizens has been working to purchase the
farmstead and its remaining 10 acres from an
out-of-state owner. Although the purchase is now
complete, the real work of raising the funds to create
an historic and educational center focused on
19th-century agriculture lies ahead.
The original farmhouse, called “Elmwood,” was built in
1850 by German immigrant John Marbold. It was given a
wonderfully detailed Eastlake-style renovation in the
1880s by John’s son H. H. Marbold. H. H. added indoor
plumbing, steam heat, gas lights and a conservatory. He
also added fancy new dormers and chimneys and a
two-story gabled porch on the front of the house. Behind
the house stretches a brick outbuilding that once housed
a summer kitchen, dairy and coach house. The farmstead
also has an ice house and the remains of a large barn
and the original steam plant. At one time the house was
connected to nearby Greenview by a wooden walkway. The
Marbolds were well known for sponsoring other immigrant
families to come to America and they played a prominent
economic role locally as bankers, farmers and livestock
traders.
Illinois has too few reminders of its long and important
agricultural heritage. The proximity of the Marbold
Farmstead to nearby New Salem and to Springfield makes
it a good candidate for heritage tourism. But the local
citizens’ group that has carried out the fundraising to
purchase the property will need considerable additional
support in order to see the project through to
completion. The Marbold Farmstead deserves to be at the
center of a much larger effort to protect our vanishing
agricultural heritage.
What You Can Do
The non-profit Historic Marbold Farmstead Association is
spearheading the fundraising, rehabilitation efforts and
program planning for the site.
Additional
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