Historic Preservation Commission
705 S. Broadway
Built
1895
Designated November 20, 1995
This classic 1916 Queen Anne style house was built by Orson Leroy Manchester, a dean at the Illinois State Normal University and Mayor of Normal from 1907 to 1917. The Queen Anne style was the most prominent style of the Victorian era and was very popular throughout the United States during the 1890s. It marked a move away from the simple rectangle of earlier days. The style is characterized by purposefully picturesque attributes: absence of symmetry, uneven and romantic rooflines, large verandas, turrets, gables, mixing of siding materials (a variety of different shingles and clapboards), ornately milled woodwork, etc. Many fine examples of this style have been razed.