Reinhoff Home
Ornate Reinhoff Home Torn Down to Lessen Taxes
Sunday News-Leader, May 22, 1938
"When the last cobblestone is removed from the sunroom fireplace, when the last cut glass chandelier is down and the last bit of parquet flooring removed from the old Reinhoff home, Springfield will have lost another of her fast-disappearing mementos of an earlier, easier day.
"The St. Louis Street home of Dr. and Mrs. William Reinhoff--for many years a center of gala yet sedate early-day social activity for the city’s first families--is being torn down. W. W. Johnson, contractor who has charge of the property for Mrs. Reinhoff, now living in Baltimore, plans no building on the site, which is for sale. The old house is being torn down to lessen taxes on the property.
"There’s something sad about the dismantling of old houses for which a practical, economically modern society has no further use. There was an elegance—heavy, perhaps, but lastingly beautiful—in the old way of building and furnishing a home that’s missing in the houses of today.
"They don’t build them like that anymore," said a Springfield old-timer of the Reinhoff house. And in the wistful tone of his voice was recognition of the change in ways of living which is best indicated by the houses in which people live.
"No one remembers just when the Reinhoff home was built, but belief is general that it was more than 45 years ago, and that it was built by Doctor Reinhoff for his bride, Miss Sadie Quick. They lived there until about 10 years ago, and their son, now a physician in Johns Hopkins hospital, grew up there. Doctor Reinhoff was one of the city’s first physicians and surgeons; his wife was a leader of early Springfield society, and their son was a popular boy. There was much entertainment in the old house, and its 12 great rooms accommodated folk prominent in Springfield and distinguished visitors of the day. The family moved to Baltimore, where Doctor Reinhoff died a few years ago. The house, after that time, was operated as an annex to the Kentwood Arms hotel, next door. In late years the exterior of the house had become gray and weather-worn, but inside remained many indications of early grandeur. All its windows were of beveled plate glass, and between two great windows in the upstairs reception hall was a huge built-in mirror, which reached from ceiling to floor. Another great mirror extended from ceiling to mantle-top in the room which was once the doctor’s library.
"Chandeliers and cut glass globes and ornate wall brackets were the taste in lighting fixtures of the day, and the Reinhoff house had many of them. Walls were hung with tapestries, papered with embossed, cloth-like paper which retained its beauty through the years.
"There were six handsome fireplaces one of cobblestones in an upstairs sunroom, another of yellow brick in the living room. There were four bathrooms in the house, unusual for the time it was constructed.
"Flooring was perhaps the most unusual feature. The floor was laid in sections, and each room had a different pattern in tones of brown and lighter brown. All woodwork was hand-finished.
"No one will estimate cost of construction and furnishing the Reinhoff home--but mention of $25-a-roll wallpaper and an estimated cost of $100 just to lay the living room floor give some indication.
"All its materials have been purchased by R. V. Burch, who owns a wood yard here. Burch believes that at least a part of the wood and glass will be saleable."
A photograph of the home did not accompany this article. The houses pictured above were also on St. Louis Street. The Henry Shepard home (top) was next door to the Reinhoff's home on the west side. It was razed to build the Kentwood arms. The Arch McGregor (lower) home was located across St. Louis Street from the Reinhoffs. The McGregor home photograph is used by permission of Sally Lyons McAlear from her book First Ladies of Springfield.
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