The Council of Independent Colleges: Historic Campus Architecture Project

Gate Lodge

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Institution Name: Principia College
Original/Historic Place Name: Gate Lodge
Location on Campus: 6 Mississippi St.
Date(s) of Construction and Designer(s):

1894	original construction Unknown

Type of Place: Individual building
Style(s): (Glossary)
Materials:

Foundation: cut stone

Walls: cut stone

Roof: wood; asphalt shingle

Function:

ca. 1894	other (Gate building for Notch Cliffe Estate)
ca. 2004-present (2007)	other (storage for boats of biology and natural resources department)

Significance: architecture, history
Landmark designation:

National Register

Elsah Historic District (1973)

Narrative: see below
References: see below

Narrative:
Gate Lodge is one of the last buildings owned by the family of the early leadership of Madison, Jersey, and Greene Counties in southern Illinois. It also remains a symbol of the upper class that dominated the development of this area and became associated with St. Louis industrial leaders. Unlike the simple buildings in Elsah made of local random stones, Gate Lodge is built of coursed cut stone with cut stone along the eaves and for the lintels and sills.

Gate Lodge was an entrance (built in 1894) for the original estate, Notch Cliffe. Notch Cliffe was built in 1872 by Lucy Ames, the daughter of James Semple, the founder of Elsah. Notch Cliffe burned in 1911. After Principia College acquired the land in 1930, Gate Lodge was used as a dwelling until 1993, when there was a major flood in the area and it was decided not to occupy the building as a dwelling again.

In 1827, James Mason purchased land in what would be called southern Jersey County. Native people were forced to leave Illinois. According to the Elsah History Newsletter, in 1852 James Semple purchased a portion of the land called lower Elsah from "a group of property owners including William H. Allen, Addison Green, and assorted smaller landholders.

References:

I. Bibliographic sources:

Elsah Historic District [including Principia College]. National Register of Historic Places registration report. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the Interior/ National Park Service, 1973.

Everhart, Gregg Summer. "Vegetation in Historic Landscape Architecture: Preservation and Restoration." M.L.A. thesis, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1994.

Gentry, Gary. Elsah History, no. 63. Elsah, IL: Historic Elsah Foundation (1993).

Hosmer, Charles B., Jr., and Paul O. Williams. Elsah: A Historic Guidebook. 5th ed., rev. Elsah, IL: Historic Elsah Foundation, 1986.

Hosmer, Charles B., Jr. Elsah History, no. 25-26. Elsah, IL: Historic Elsah Foundation (December 1978).

II. Location of other data:

University: Special Collections

SHPO

Government Offices