Oldest Building in Lawrenceville
- Lawrence Lore
- Mar 26
- 3 min read
The history of the Edward Dobbins Lodge Building can be found in the Abstract of Title of Lot 69 in Valentine J. Bradley’s Addition to the Town of Lawrenceville. The building may be the oldest in the city.
The first entry is the land patent from the United States to Toussaint DuBois that was granted on August 28, 1788. The land Patent covered a group of seven locations comprising what was known as ‘the Schoals’, a part of the Northwest Territory France ceded to the colony of Virginia in 1762.
The next entry on the abstract is a copy of the Will made by Toussaint DuBois dated June 15, 1815, in which he left all of his property, including the services of one Negro man named Gabriel and Anna his wife, to his children and his wife Jane DuBois.
The children were listed as Suzanne DuBois Jones, Toussaint DuBois Jr, Henry DuBois, Charles DuBois, Emmanuel DuBois, Thomas B. DuBois, James DuBois, and Jesse K. DuBois. The will of Toussaint DuBois was filed for probate in the Circuit Court of Knox County, Indiana territory, April 15, 1816, and the properties held as undivided interests until 1826. In February 1826, Thomas B DuBois deeded his undivided interest in the estate to Valentine J Bradley.
There is a long stretch of the silent years, from the time of the granting of the patent and the settlement of the estate of Toussaint DuBois. By that time Illinois had been admitted to the union and the petition of Valentine J. Bradley for partition of the real estate came up in Lawrence County Circuit Court. The report of the commissioners, appointed to divide the property, gave Valentine J Bradley 96 1/3 acres of land that included what is now lot 69 of Valentine J Bradley's addition, the lot upon which the present brick structure now stands.
From present land descriptions, Bradley’s property began at what is now 11th and Walnut streets, and ranged North and West incorporating the old mill site, and practically all land west of 11th St. for a half mile and North of Walnut St. to the River. His share joined the original town of Lawrenceville, and was ‘up-town’ property, located a short block from the St. Louis-Vincennes stage line.
The Bradley Addition was plated June 17, 1826, but the month previously, Bradley and his wife Eliza Ann had deeded Lot 69 to Samuel Coleman for $90. Thirty years later, on June 9, 1856, Samuel Coleman and his wife, Jane P, executed a quitclaim deed for $10, transferring the lot to I. A. Powell, John B. Maxwell, and Thomas Kirkwood, trustees of the Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceville. The brick building that is there now was erected sometime after June 9, 1856.
In 1880, the church trustees, Thomas Kirkwood, Daniel L Gold, and Leonard Selby, deeded the property to Bainbridge L Cunningham and Mary E, his wife, for $300. In April 1881 Cunningham deeded the property to the Lawrenceville City Hall Association; and in December of 1881, the Lawrenceville City Hall Association, for $555 deeded it to the trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church, T. A. Curry, GM Whitaker, and Ed Tracy.
On March 2 1893, the trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church, who were then T. C. Watts, Thomas R. Hennessy, Dickerson Howell, and T. B. Huffman sold the lot to George Green for $580; and on July 7 of the same year, Green and his wife sold it to Frank Flowers at al, trustees of Free Methodist Church of Lawrenceville for the sum of $620.
In 1912 Lyman W Emmons acquired the property from the Free Methodist Church paying $1505 to the trustees, D. S. Moore, John K. Trevault, John Havill, J. L. Barcrost, and F. M. Cullison. Lyman, who used the building as a funeral home, sold the property to Clyde H. King and wife on July 31, 1917, for $12,000 who continued to operate it as such; and on September 19, 1923, King sold the property to Kenneth D Zipprodt and Charles W. Zipprodt for a dollar and other valuable consideration.
Kenneth D Zipprodt deeded his interest in the property to Charles W Zipprodt and sometime about June 18, 1953, the property was sold to Edward Dobbins Lodge.
