Joel Matteson Mansion

511 South Fourth Street
1856

Photo courtesy of Richard E. Hart

Governor Joel Matteson built this private residence in 1856 directly across the street from the newly-finished Governor’s Mansion with the intention of putting the official residence to shame. He succeeded; his Italianate mansion was unquestionably the finest in town. In 1857 Mary Lincoln wrote to her half-sister: “almost palaces of homes, have been reared since you were lasthere...Gov Matteson’s house is just being completed the whole place has cost him he says $100,000.”