John R. Oughton House
Encyclopedia
The John R. Oughton House commonly known as The Lodge or the Keeley Estate, is a Victorian
mansion located in the village of Dwight
, Illinois
, United States
. The grounds remain mostly unchanged since the house was moved from its original site in 1894 and remodeled a year later. John R. Oughton occupied the house until his death in 1925 and in 1930 the house became a boarding home for patients of the internationally known Keeley Institute
. The Keeley Institute was founded in 1879, in part by Oughton, and utilized a new form of treatment for alcoholism
. The estate grounds feature two outbuildings, a carriage house
and a windmill
, as well as a pond. Since 1978 the Oughton House has been occupied by a private restaurant but the windmill is owned by the Village of Dwight and the carriage house is a public library. The Oughton House and its outbuildings were added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places
in 1980.
In 1879 Dr. Leslie Keeley
announced the result of a collaboration with John R. Oughton which was heralded as a "major discovery" by Keeley. The discovery, a new treatment for alcoholism
, resulted in the founding of the Keeley Institute. The institute's work was pioneering in its field, Keeley aimed to treat alcoholism as a disease rather than as a vice. Keeley managed to amass a fortune, becoming a millionaire through the institute and its famous slogan, "Drunkenness is a disease and I can cure it." The Keeley Institute eventually had over 200 branches throughout the United States
and Europe
, and by 1900 the so-called Keeley Cure, injections of gold chloride
, had been administered to more than 300,000 people.After 1900, the patient numbers were lower with 100,000 additional people taking the cure between 1900 and 1939.
After Keeley died in 1900, Oughton and Judd took over and continued the Keeley Institute. The institute drew criticism and with Keeley, its primary spokesman and defender, gone, the organization began to fade into national oblivion. By the late 1930s most physcians believed that "that drunkards are neurotics [sic
] and cannot be cured by injections." When John R. Oughton died in 1925 his son took over the declining institute, it continued to operate until closing its doors in 1965.
mansion
located on the south side of the Livingston County
village of Dwight
, USA. The original building was constructed in 1891 on a different site and moved to the grounds of the Keeley Estate in 1894 to act as a clubhouse for the Keeley Club, an organization of Keeley Institute
graduates that first met in the original building on the property and then in the Oughton House, until 1894. A the timeof themove the house was known as the Scott House. It was originally constructed as a boarding house
for W.T. Scott. In April 1894 the house underwent an elaborate remodeling project which transformed the clubhouse into a home for John R. Oughton. Oughton was one of the founders of the Keeley Institute
. At the time of the structure's renovation, Mrs. Oughton named the house "the Manse."
Oughton lived in the home until he died in 1925, at which time his widow had a home built next door and announced that the Oughton House was to become lodging for 40–50 patients at the Keeley Institute. The conversion for the change took over a year and a half and institute patients moved into the Oughton House on December 24, 1930. Newspaper reports at the time indicated that the remodeling added 15 bedrooms to the house but left the exterior mostly unchanged. In addition, the brick
barn
was converted into a gym
nasium at that time.
The John R. Oughton House served as patient housing for the institute until the organization folded in 1965. Following the closing, James Oughton, Jr., grandson of John R. Oughton, opened the Lodge Restaurant. The conversion into a restaurant
did not make any substantial changes to the house or its grounds. In 1978 Robert Ohlendorf and his wife purchased and renamed the restaurant, and made extensive changes to the interior which were mindful of the original Victorian architecture. No substantial changes have been made to the exterior, other than to allow access for the disabled.
roof, large windows, colonial piazza
s and interior oak
, mahogany
and birch
finishing. The 1895 house included 20 rooms on its first two floors, a number which included servants' quarters
. In its basement
was a bowling alley, dance hall and three storage rooms. The periods of renovation and remodeling have substantially changed the house's interior but its exterior remains largely similar to its original appearance. The Oughton house is of wood frame and Bedford limestone
construction.
The grounds of the Oughton House also hold a 110 feet (33.5 m) windmill
tower. The windmill was originally called the Pumping Tower and was constructred by U.S. Wind, Engine and Pump Company of Batavia, Illinois
. The windmill, which provided a water system for the Oughton Estate, has an 840 ft (256 m) deep well. The original windmill featured an 88 barrel cypress
tank at its top and the windmill head, 16 feet (5 m) across, was one of the largest in the United States at the time of its construction in 1896.
Only two owners held the deed to the windmill between 1896 and 2001. The first, the Oughton family, owned the windmill from its construction until 1996. That year, ownership was transferred to Mike and Bev Hogan. The Hogans donated the windmill to the Village of Dwight with the goal of saving the then deteriorating structure.
Around the windmill area, while not precisely an outbuilding, is a pond
. The grounds remain mostly unchanged, allowing visitors to stroll the area and view the restored windmill and the brick barn
that was used as a gymnasium after 1930. The 50 by 80 ft (15 by 24 m) building was built as a carriage house
by Oughton in 1896, and used to house horses and cattle. From 1930 to 1965 the building was used as a recreation facility for the patients at the Keeley Institute. In 1989 the Oughton family donated the structure to the Prairie Creek Library District and it has since become the home of the Prairie Creek Public Library.
The Oughton House and the surrounding grounds are the only publicly accessible Keeley associated properties remaining in Dwight. Others, such as the Livingston Hotel and the Keeley Building, the latter directly across the street from The Lodge, are privately owned and inaccessible. The John R. Oughton House was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places
on September 23, 1980, in part, for its association with the Keeley Institute and its founders.
Victorian architecture
The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...
mansion located in the village of Dwight
Dwight, Illinois
Dwight is a village in located mainly in Livingston County, Illinois, with a small portion in Grundy County, Illinois. The population was 4,260 at the 2010 census. Dwight contains an original stretch of the famous U.S. Route 66, and uses a railroad station designed in 1891 by Henry Ives Cobb. It is...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The grounds remain mostly unchanged since the house was moved from its original site in 1894 and remodeled a year later. John R. Oughton occupied the house until his death in 1925 and in 1930 the house became a boarding home for patients of the internationally known Keeley Institute
Keeley Institute
The Keeley Institute, known for its Keeley Cure, was a commercial medical operation that offered treatment to alcoholics from 1879 to 1965. Though at one time there were more than 200 branches in the United States and Europe, the original institute was founded by Leslie Keeley in Dwight, Illinois,...
. The Keeley Institute was founded in 1879, in part by Oughton, and utilized a new form of treatment for alcoholism
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
. The estate grounds feature two outbuildings, a carriage house
Carriage house
A carriage house, also called remise or coach house, is an outbuilding which was originally built to house horse-drawn carriages and the related tack.In Great Britain the farm building was called a Cart Shed...
and a windmill
Windmill
A windmill is a machine which converts the energy of wind into rotational energy by means of vanes called sails or blades. Originally windmills were developed for milling grain for food production. In the course of history the windmill was adapted to many other industrial uses. An important...
, as well as a pond. Since 1978 the Oughton House has been occupied by a private restaurant but the windmill is owned by the Village of Dwight and the carriage house is a public library. The Oughton House and its outbuildings were added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 1980.
Background
Leslie Keeley
Leslie Keeley was an American physician, originator of the Keeley Cure.Born in St. Lawrence County, N.Y., Keeley graduated at the Rush Medical College, Chicago, in 1863, and later entered the Union Army as a surgeon. At the end of the war he moved to Dwight, Ill., where he began his private...
announced the result of a collaboration with John R. Oughton which was heralded as a "major discovery" by Keeley. The discovery, a new treatment for alcoholism
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
, resulted in the founding of the Keeley Institute. The institute's work was pioneering in its field, Keeley aimed to treat alcoholism as a disease rather than as a vice. Keeley managed to amass a fortune, becoming a millionaire through the institute and its famous slogan, "Drunkenness is a disease and I can cure it." The Keeley Institute eventually had over 200 branches throughout the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, and by 1900 the so-called Keeley Cure, injections of gold chloride
Gold chloride
Gold chloride can refer to:* Gold chloride , AuCl* Gold chloride , AuCl2* Gold chloride , AuCl3* Chloroauric acid, HAuCl4...
, had been administered to more than 300,000 people.After 1900, the patient numbers were lower with 100,000 additional people taking the cure between 1900 and 1939.
After Keeley died in 1900, Oughton and Judd took over and continued the Keeley Institute. The institute drew criticism and with Keeley, its primary spokesman and defender, gone, the organization began to fade into national oblivion. By the late 1930s most physcians believed that "that drunkards are neurotics [sic
Sic
Sic—generally inside square brackets, [sic], and occasionally parentheses, —when added just after a quote or reprinted text, indicates the passage appears exactly as in the original source...
] and cannot be cured by injections." When John R. Oughton died in 1925 his son took over the declining institute, it continued to operate until closing its doors in 1965.
History
The Oughton House, known as The Lodge, is a 20 room VictorianVictorian architecture
The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...
mansion
Mansion
A mansion is a very large dwelling house. U.S. real estate brokers define a mansion as a dwelling of over . A traditional European mansion was defined as a house which contained a ballroom and tens of bedrooms...
located on the south side of the Livingston County
Livingston County, Illinois
Livingston County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 38,950, which is a decrease of 1.8% from 39,678 in 2000. Its county seat is Pontiac....
village of Dwight
Dwight, Illinois
Dwight is a village in located mainly in Livingston County, Illinois, with a small portion in Grundy County, Illinois. The population was 4,260 at the 2010 census. Dwight contains an original stretch of the famous U.S. Route 66, and uses a railroad station designed in 1891 by Henry Ives Cobb. It is...
, USA. The original building was constructed in 1891 on a different site and moved to the grounds of the Keeley Estate in 1894 to act as a clubhouse for the Keeley Club, an organization of Keeley Institute
Keeley Institute
The Keeley Institute, known for its Keeley Cure, was a commercial medical operation that offered treatment to alcoholics from 1879 to 1965. Though at one time there were more than 200 branches in the United States and Europe, the original institute was founded by Leslie Keeley in Dwight, Illinois,...
graduates that first met in the original building on the property and then in the Oughton House, until 1894. A the timeof themove the house was known as the Scott House. It was originally constructed as a boarding house
Boarding house
A boarding house, is a house in which lodgers rent one or more rooms for one or more nights, and sometimes for extended periods of weeks, months and years. The common parts of the house are maintained, and some services, such as laundry and cleaning, may be supplied. They normally provide "bed...
for W.T. Scott. In April 1894 the house underwent an elaborate remodeling project which transformed the clubhouse into a home for John R. Oughton. Oughton was one of the founders of the Keeley Institute
Keeley Institute
The Keeley Institute, known for its Keeley Cure, was a commercial medical operation that offered treatment to alcoholics from 1879 to 1965. Though at one time there were more than 200 branches in the United States and Europe, the original institute was founded by Leslie Keeley in Dwight, Illinois,...
. At the time of the structure's renovation, Mrs. Oughton named the house "the Manse."
Brick
A brick is a block of ceramic material used in masonry construction, usually laid using various kinds of mortar. It has been regarded as one of the longest lasting and strongest building materials used throughout history.-History:...
barn
Barn
A barn is an agricultural building used for storage and as a covered workplace. It may sometimes be used to house livestock or to store farming vehicles and equipment...
was converted into a gym
Gym
The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, that mean a locality for both physical and intellectual education of young men...
nasium at that time.
The John R. Oughton House served as patient housing for the institute until the organization folded in 1965. Following the closing, James Oughton, Jr., grandson of John R. Oughton, opened the Lodge Restaurant. The conversion into a restaurant
Restaurant
A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...
did not make any substantial changes to the house or its grounds. In 1978 Robert Ohlendorf and his wife purchased and renamed the restaurant, and made extensive changes to the interior which were mindful of the original Victorian architecture. No substantial changes have been made to the exterior, other than to allow access for the disabled.
Architecture
The Victorian style John R. Oughton House was described as handsome and inviting in an 1895 local newspaper article. Elements found within the home include, a slateSlate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. The result is a foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering...
roof, large windows, colonial piazza
Piazza
A piazza is a city square in Italy, Malta, along the Dalmatian coast and in surrounding regions. The term is roughly equivalent to the Spanish plaza...
s and interior oak
Oak
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...
, mahogany
Mahogany
The name mahogany is used when referring to numerous varieties of dark-colored hardwood. It is a native American word originally used for the wood of the species Swietenia mahagoni, known as West Indian or Cuban mahogany....
and birch
Birch
Birch is a tree or shrub of the genus Betula , in the family Betulaceae, closely related to the beech/oak family, Fagaceae. The Betula genus contains 30–60 known taxa...
finishing. The 1895 house included 20 rooms on its first two floors, a number which included servants' quarters
Servants' quarters
Servants' quarters are those parts of a building, traditionally in a private house, which contain the domestic offices and staff accommodation. From the late 17th century until the early 20th century they were a common feature in all large houses...
. In its basement
Basement
__FORCETOC__A basement is one or more floors of a building that are either completely or partially below the ground floor. Basements are typically used as a utility space for a building where such items as the furnace, water heater, breaker panel or fuse box, car park, and air-conditioning system...
was a bowling alley, dance hall and three storage rooms. The periods of renovation and remodeling have substantially changed the house's interior but its exterior remains largely similar to its original appearance. The Oughton house is of wood frame and Bedford limestone
Indiana Limestone
Indiana Limestone, also known as Bedford Limestone is a common regional term for Salem limestone, a geological formation primarily quarried in south central Indiana between Bloomington and Bedford....
construction.
Windmill
Windmill
A windmill is a machine which converts the energy of wind into rotational energy by means of vanes called sails or blades. Originally windmills were developed for milling grain for food production. In the course of history the windmill was adapted to many other industrial uses. An important...
tower. The windmill was originally called the Pumping Tower and was constructred by U.S. Wind, Engine and Pump Company of Batavia, Illinois
Batavia, Illinois
Batavia was founded in 1833, and is the oldest city in Kane County, Illinois, with a small portion in DuPage County. During the Industrial Revolution, Batavia became known as ‘The Windmill City’ for being the largest windmill producer of the time...
. The windmill, which provided a water system for the Oughton Estate, has an 840 ft (256 m) deep well. The original windmill featured an 88 barrel cypress
Cypress
Cypress is the name applied to many plants in the cypress family Cupressaceae, which is a conifer of northern temperate regions. Most cypress species are trees, while a few are shrubs...
tank at its top and the windmill head, 16 feet (5 m) across, was one of the largest in the United States at the time of its construction in 1896.
Only two owners held the deed to the windmill between 1896 and 2001. The first, the Oughton family, owned the windmill from its construction until 1996. That year, ownership was transferred to Mike and Bev Hogan. The Hogans donated the windmill to the Village of Dwight with the goal of saving the then deteriorating structure.
Other outbuildings
Pond
A pond is a body of standing water, either natural or man-made, that is usually smaller than a lake. A wide variety of man-made bodies of water are classified as ponds, including water gardens, water features and koi ponds; all designed for aesthetic ornamentation as landscape or architectural...
. The grounds remain mostly unchanged, allowing visitors to stroll the area and view the restored windmill and the brick barn
Barn
A barn is an agricultural building used for storage and as a covered workplace. It may sometimes be used to house livestock or to store farming vehicles and equipment...
that was used as a gymnasium after 1930. The 50 by 80 ft (15 by 24 m) building was built as a carriage house
Carriage house
A carriage house, also called remise or coach house, is an outbuilding which was originally built to house horse-drawn carriages and the related tack.In Great Britain the farm building was called a Cart Shed...
by Oughton in 1896, and used to house horses and cattle. From 1930 to 1965 the building was used as a recreation facility for the patients at the Keeley Institute. In 1989 the Oughton family donated the structure to the Prairie Creek Library District and it has since become the home of the Prairie Creek Public Library.
Significance
The London Morning News remarked in 1892, "Dwight, Illinois is a small place. Remove Dr. Keeley from Dwight and it would be but a pin mark on the state map." The founding of the Keeley Institute in 1879 by Dr. Leslie Keeley and his associates John R. Oughton and Curtis Judd had great influence on the development of the village of Dwight. The Lodge, first as Oughton's home and then as the focal point of the internationally known institute has always been one of the most visible reminders in Dwight of the Keeley Institute. The Keeley Institute solidified its place in American culture throughout its period of prominence as several generations of Americans joked about people, especially the rich and famous, who were "taking the Keeley Cure" or had "gone to Dwight."The Oughton House and the surrounding grounds are the only publicly accessible Keeley associated properties remaining in Dwight. Others, such as the Livingston Hotel and the Keeley Building, the latter directly across the street from The Lodge, are privately owned and inaccessible. The John R. Oughton House was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
on September 23, 1980, in part, for its association with the Keeley Institute and its founders.