The Greenleafs

Just outside the gates to the Castle, on the brow of the hill, sits a modest white clapboard house called "Hillside." This was the first homestead built on Greenleaf Hill and is now our Visitors Center. It was built in 1872 by Simon Greenleaf and wife Frances Jane. In 1875 Simon established the Savanna Times, a weekly newspaper. In 1885, Simon Greenleaf and son, Francis, established the Savanna Journal.  By the end of the year, Francis S. Greenleaf became the full owner and editor of the weekly still published today, and known as the Savanna Times Journal.

 

The Greenleaf family owned the entire hill along with a large apron of land down on the 'flat' that surrounded it. An Episcopalean of ardent faith, Simon donated a portion of the land to St. Paul's Episcopal church, where he was a founding member.  A stained glass window in the structure commemorates him.
 

In 1886 Margaret Kenney married Simon's son, Francis S. Greenleaf, and they lived with his parents in the unassuming "Hillside," dreaming of the day when they would have a home of their own.  They chose the prime bit of land, that great lot on the crest of the hill, lot number one, as the setting for their new Queen Anne mansion.

 

It is a boom time in the Midwestern town that boasts both the railroad and the Mississippi River as conduits of commerce. Local affluent men are also proposing erections of "commodious and substantial" dwellings. Started in 1899 and finished in 1901, "Hillcrest" (later to become "Havencrest") was one of four extravagant homes built at that time as the result of a wager between prominent businessmen, to determine which home would be the most opulent in Savanna. All will build in the Queen Anne vernacular, and all will use the only architect in town, Lester Bowen. 

 

"Hillcrest," built of local brick and limestone brought by rail from Indiana, boasted two water closets (bathrooms), in a time and place where indoor plumbing was a rarity. In addition, Margaret had installed

a marble sink with hot and cold running water in her bedroom, where commonly a large pitcher of tepid water in a bowl were the standard fixtures. Luxury woods of Birdseye Maple and quarter-sawn oak were used throughout the first floor public rooms. Going beyond the "modern convenience of electricity throughout" the dining room boasted a Tiffany chandelier, and little lights between the oaken beams of the coffered ceiling.

 

Mr. Greenleaf died in 1944, and a few months later his wife, Margaret, followed him. Their four children were now scattered across the country, so the furnishings and then the house were sold. (in 1945 the dining room's Tiffany chandelier sold for only $5) However, the three fireplaces, the beveled and stained glass windows, formal sliding

doors, ornate brass hardware, and fine woods remained to capture the hearts of another newlywed couple some 31 years later.