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Pettengill-Morron House
Sonya Colletti Historical societies often open old homes to the public to provide people a glimpse of the past. One of these historic houses is the Pettengill-Morron House. The Peoria Historical Society needed to reorganize very little in the Pettengill-Morron House before it was opened to the public; its seven wealthy prior occupants did the majority of the remodeling and furnishing, as well as adding to the home's rich history. Moses Pettengill and his wife, Lucy, who came to Peoria in 1834 from New Hampshire, built this house. When the Pettengills' wood frame house on Moss Avenue burned down, the present house was built there in 1868. It had eleven rooms, a full basement, an attic, and closets. At the time, closets were taxed as another room. The Pettengills also built another home on Jefferson Street, although it was torn down in 1907 for a hotel. Moses Pettengill ran a hardware store and was very prosperous. Moses and Lucy worked in the movement to abolish slavery, and during the Civil War the Jefferson Street home was reported to be a stop on the Underground Railroad. It is said that Abraham Lincoln stayed or visited there as well. Between 1892 and 1953, four other families occupied the house. Only two of them had a lasting influence on the house. The Clarks, who owned the house between 1892 and 1901, refinished the floors. They put in wooden hall floors that have sur- The Peoria Historical Society had to do very little to the Pettengill-MorronHouse to ready it for public viewing; prior occupants had maintained the house, and they left behind many of the furnishings.
vived about one hundred years. John Boyd Stone and his family, who inhabited the house between 1945 and 1953, were the other major contributors to the way the house looks today. They remodeled the entire house. They brought the bathrooms up to date and added an island in the kitchen. They also placed crystal sconces along the living room and parlor walls. The last owner of the home was philanthropist Jean Morron, who lived there from 1953 until her death in 1966. Her contribution to the house was in antique furniture as well as some minor remodeling. When her home on Jefferson Street was torn down to make way for an interstate highway, she tried to make her new home as much like her old one as possible. She brought electric gaslights, the ornamental fence that edges the front lawn, brass stair railings and a silver nameplate. Behind the house, she built a three-car garage. A fireplace from her old home was reinstalled in a room that she converted for use as a library, where she removed the carved wood paneling to put in wallpaper, and added a wall of shelves. Most of the furniture displayed in the Pettengill-Morron house belonged to Morron and nearly every style and era is represented, reflecting the Morrons' extensive travel. A large selection of Christmas items was displayed in the holiday season. The historical society received this home in 1967, soon after Morron's death. The Pettengill-Morron house has a beautifully landscaped yard. Old trees surround the backyard and create an amphitheater where the Peoria Opera was first performed. Also in the back are the foundations of a carriage house. When the Pettengills owned the house, the main entrance was in what is now the back of the house. The house is painted gray with white trim and the roof was redone in 1991. The columns are now double attached cylinders, also added in 1991, though Morron had changed them to square columns. They were round when the house was built. Those columns lend an impressive and stately grace to Pettengill-Morron. Downstairs in the Pettengill-Morron house are five rooms—the living room, the parlor, the library, the dining room, and the kitchen. The living room and parlor used to be separated by a partition, but now there is one large room. It is tastefully decorated and two interesting pieces in it are a mahogany coffin-shaped piano and an original Tiffany dragonfly lamp that the Historical Society found in a box marked "John's ugly lamp." Both the library and the parlor/living room are furnished mostly in mahogany, walnut, and rosewood, and the library is full of books. One of the interesting items is Morron's great-grandfather's 1763 college diploma that was on actual sheepskin. The library and dining room ceilings were lowered so that they could hold Morron's chandeliers. In the dining room, many sets of china are displayed as well as three generations of silver. Morron's set of antique copper cook- ware is in the kitchen. There are five rooms upstairs, not including the closet—the servants' quarters, two guest rooms, a bedroom, and a sitting room. The servants' quarters, though small, are well furnished, and to show lower rank, are two steps down from the rest of the second floor. The guest rooms are large, with chamber pots and foot warmers on display. In the guest room, called the Hancock room, there are two interesting pieces of jewelry made from real human hair. The bedroom is basic, through laid out beside a mirror are the sterling silver hair brush set of Nicholas Alexandrovitch, a Russian czar. Curios fill the sitting room along with a few chairs, a judge's cabinet, and a fainting couch. Seven wealthy occupants filled the Pettengill-Morron house with fine furniture and left much history. After being turned over to the historical society in 1967, the Pettengill-Morron was opened to the public. In 1976 the home was listed in the National Register of Historic Places. It is a lasting landmark to both Peoria's and Illinois' history.— [From: Chuck Burroughs, "Much History will go up in Jeff's Dust," Journal Star, Sept. 30, 1978; Jean Comerford, "Historic Mansion to Provide Glimpse of Earlier Peoria," Journal Star, Sept. 24, 1967; Jerry Klein, "Morron House Getting an Old Look," Journal Star, July 28, 1991; "Memorable Toys on Display," Journal Star, Dec. 20, 1972; "The Morron House Entrance," Peoria Observer, July 3, 1985; Erma Seaton Robinson, "Old Treasures in a New Home," Journal Star, Aug. 18, 1963; Sally Shive, "Historic Pettengill-Morron House Refurbished," Journal Star, Mar. 11, 1983; student historian's interview with DeAnn Ruggles (tour guide); "1212 W. Moss Avenue," vertical files, Peoria Public Library.]
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