Burchell House

Peter J. Burchell moved to St. Charles in 1839 from Dryden, New York. He built this house in the Italianate style in 1854. Burchell was the proprietor of the St. Charles Hotel (located on East Main Street where the Arcada Theatre now stands) from the early 1840s until he died in 1875. Writing in the St. Charles Chronicle in 1902, Pliny Durant called the hotel, "the best known hostelry in Northern Illinois, outside Chicago." In addition to managing the St. Charles Hotel, Burchell also served at various times as Deputy United States Marshall, Deputy Sheriff, Trustee of the St. Charles Village Board, and as Postmaster of St. Charles. Burchell also helped finance the St. Charles-Sycamore Toll Road, also known as Plank Road, in the 1850s.

Thomas Doyle purchased the house in 1857. Doyle was a blacksmith as were four of his five sons. Pliny Durant recalled visiting the Doyles and noted that ''The family homestead.. . was in its time considered one of the best in town. It was a pleasant home, and its inmates were hospitable entertainers."

Over the years, the Burchell House has had many different owners and hosted various businesses. Debra Phillips established her landscape and interior design boutique, Scentimental Gardens, in the Burchell House more than twenty years ago.

Sources

■ Architectural Survey, St. Charles Central District, St. Charles, IL. 1995. (R720.977323 ARC)

■ Business: Local History Vertical File

■ Durant, Pliny. Passing in Review: Reminiscences of Men Who Have Lived in St. Charles. St. Charles: Elizabeth  Beckstrom, 1994. (R977.3230081 DUR, p. 11-13, 74, View Online

■ Ferslew, William. Ferslew's Kane County Directory and Business Adviser. Geneva: Ferslew and Co., 1857. View Online

■ Pearson, Ruth Ann. Reflections of St. Charles. Elgin: Brethern Press, 1976. (977.32 PEA, p. 68, 97)