Old Stone Farmhouse © 1999 John A. Lind

• Zeiss Ikon Contax IIIa Color Dial
• 50mm f/1.5 Carl Zeiss (Stuttgart) Sonnar
• Kodak Elitechrome 100 Extra Color
• Exposure data not recorded
• Hobson's Bluffdale, Eldred, Illinois, June 1999
• The Bluffdale farmhouse was built in the 1820's.  A thick stand of trees and tall dense bushes shades this west facing house.  Consequently this is the only view of its front and even then it is still partially blocked by large tree branches.  The builder of this house also built the original courthouse for the county.  The stone was quarried within a mile or so of the house.  The front is and back are block, but as was the custom at the time, the sides are of smaller round stone.  The large stone blocks are incredibly square and very thick.  The house was part of the Underground Railroad in the years leading to the Civil War.  Escaped slaves were hidden in its interior walls as they made their way north to Canada.  Bluffdale also served as the Post Office for the area into the 1900's.  It still serves as the main farmhouse for the farm.  All the woodwork inside, including the front door, is the original black walnut.  It is hard to imagine the beautiful paneled doors and molded woodwork inside were done completely by hand using wooden block planes, chisels, scrapers and augers.  Not a single nail was used in the doors or woodwork.  It is all held together with flush pegs, many of which are hard to find because the grain of the pegs was matched and aligned with the surrounding wood.  Nails at the time were square, hand made by blacksmiths, and reserved almost exclusively for shoeing horses.