Impressive stone porch of former George Lawrence home
SW corner of Prairie & Losey Streets, built in early 1890s

This past week, driving on the streets of Galesburg, I saw a number of people sitting on their porches. They were enjoying the short period of warm, dry weather between rainstorms. It was good to see the people with smiles on their faces enjoying the spring weather.
 
A porch is defined as an exterior appendage to a building forming a covered approach. They come in many sizes and configurations. They can be fancy or plain. They can be large or small, screened or unscreened. They have been attached to public and private buildings since ancient times.
 
The building where Carl Sandburg was born in 1878 had only a stoop—a few steps by which to enter the house. The second home in which the Sandburg family lived at 641 East South Street can be seen today with an enclosed porch. There was a double stairway to the porch at the front of the house at 808-810 East Berrien Street where the Sandburgs lived from 1882to 1889.
 
In 1899 the family moved across the street to a home with a fine Victorian porch. It had a stairway facing the street and one on the east side of the house.
 
Eighty Galesburg Homes, published in 2005, includes photographs of some of the largest homes in Galesburg. Nearly every one of the abodes has a porch. In the days without air conditioning the porch was the most comfortable part of the house in the summertime. Many of the those houses have screened porches on the second story in the rear for sleeping during hot and humid summer nights.
 
The Dr. G.Z. Luster house at 756 North Broad Street even had a porch on the third level of the house.
Many houses pictured in the book have fancy woodwork decorating the edges of the porch. Stone foundations also supported and decorated the porches.
 
The George A. Lawrence home on the southwest corner of Prairie and Losey streets was erected in the early 1890s. It has a formidable stone porch. Carl Sandburg wrote in his autobiography, Always the Young Strangers, that the house cost $80,000. That may have been the town gossip of the time. There is no doubt the house—and porch—was built to last.
 
The photographs of some of the homes show awnings on the porches to shade them from the afternoon sun. Others have trellises with vines and flowers growing on them. They helped to shade the porch and provide a little privacy.
 
The houses erected during the nineteenth century in the “far north” sections of Seminary, Prairie, Cherry and Academy streets were still being developed. There were few trees to shade the mansions. Viewers can also see the large buildings behind the houses which housed the horses, carriages and other things.
 
Residents of city were fortunate to have a number of architects to design the beautiful homes. There were also craftsmen to frame the structures, to plaster the walls and create other amenities of a fine residence. A goodly number of lumber yards provided the materials for construction.
 
By 1900 Galesburg was a city of fine residential structures which expressed its success as a railroad and manufacturing center. At the same time other parts of the city told the story of working families who were just beginning to feel the effects of a growing economy. At the same time, there were many small buildings which served as dwellings for the less well off.