The west end (Pasfield Street end) of German Settlers Row, 2025 (SCHS)
German Settlers Row, a group of buildings centered around the 300 block of West Cook Street, takes its name from the families who built the first homes there in the 1860s: Mack, Schutte, Lauer, Godenrath, Dressendorfer.
From Cook Street today, the building’s exteriors look much like they did 150 years ago – modest, well-kept frame structures. Inside, however, they hold offices, not the families of industrious German immigrants.
The name “German Settlers Row” dates only from 1986, when Springfield Preservation Ltd., a consortium of preservationists-investors, bought three of the houses to forestall what seemed like inevitable demolition. The group later purchased more property and moved several houses of similar vintage onto the block.
Springfield Preservation was led primarily by lawyer/historian Richard Hart (1942-2022), who also wrote the book – literally – on German Settlers Row, and landscape architect Kent Massie.
Hart’s 2013 pamphlet, Lincoln’s Springfield: The German Population, part of his Spring Creek series on local history, summarized the original development of the 300 block of West Cook.
In August 1857, David Mack purchased a two-and-one-third-acre area within Vinegar Hill (the larger neighborhood – ed.) for $1,750. The area was just southwest of the city’s Corporation Limits. …
Over the next few years unimproved lots were sold to young German immigrants as follows:
Lot 6 – Dec. 11, 1859 – Bernhard Schutte – $190
Lot 5 – Dec. 11, 1859 – Henry Lauer — $150
Lots 1 and 2 – Feb. 13, 1862 – John Godenrath (or Goodenrath – ed.)
Lot 4 – Sept. 9, 1862 – John Dressendorfer — $100
Some of the lots may have been bought on spec. Lauer (probably 1829-1895), for instance, was a carpenter and house builder, and Schutte (1815-88) was a plasterer. Godenrath (1828?-83) worked as a blacksmith.
John Dressendorfer with, presumably, his eight daughters. Undated (Lincoln’s Springfield: the German Population)
John Dressendorfer, however, intended to live in his new home at 313 W. Cook St. Hart went into detail about the Dressendorfer family, partly because 313 W. Cook was the first German Settlers Row house Springfield Preservation redeveloped.
According to Hart, John Dressendorfer (1822-92) and his wife Anna (1840-86) were both born in Bavaria. John apparently arrived in the U.S. about 1845; he was naturalized (naturalization papers spell his last name “Dreschenderfer”) in October 1856.
Dressendorfer was a teamster when he bought the Cook Street property. He went on to hold jobs as a laborer and a gardener. In 1881, he brought his old wagoneer skills to the Springfield Fire Department, where he was assigned to drive the four-horse “Button” hose cart.
Dressendorfer died of heart disease in September 1892 in the Cook Street home. Anna had died six years earlier, so he was survived by his children: one son, Gus, and eight daughters. In the style of the time, the obituary identified the five married daughters by their husbands’ names: Mrs. Michael (Mary) Kienzler, Mrs. Karl (Margarete) Kienzler, Mrs. Peter (Antonia) Lehnen, Mrs. Henry (Eva) Leeder, and Mrs. Bernard (Johanna) Hagele. (Sisters Mary and Margarete had married brothers Michael and Karl Kienzler.) The unmarried Dressendorfer daughters at the time were Anna, Lizzie and Anastasia.
John and Anna are buried in Calvary Cemetery.
313 W. Cook St. in 2025 (SCHS)
The old Dressendorfer home was in bad shape when Springfield Preservation Ltd. bought the property, according to a 1986 State Journal-Register interview of Hart and Massie:
(T)he house was hidden behind an overgrowth of trees, and an “occupancy prohibited” sign was on the door. Part of the flooring was charred where vagrants had built a fire.
“The thing was a mess when we got it,” Hart said. “It was just a pit.”
The group also bought two other houses on the block that date from the same period. “By having three of them, we can have sort of a mini-neighborhood here,” Massie said.
“It’s sort of a buffer between all the commercial buildings (to the east) and the residential area (to the west),” he added.
The Illinois Board of Admissions to the Bar, which occupied most of German Settlers Row as of the 2020s, embarked on an expansion and modernization project, preservationist style, in 2024. Catherine O’Connor wrote about the IBAB’s plans in Springfield Business Journal in January 2025.
German Settlers Row contains almost a dozen stick-style, brick-and-frame cottages built around the turn of the 20th century or before. Several of the structures were moved to the site to avoid demolition during different stages of construction of the ever-burgeoning Illinois Capitol Complex and have been remodeled at different periods by a variety of owners. Due to their relocation and various renovations, the mini-district is ineligible for National Register of Historic Places designation, but the historic significance has been the subject of survey research and landmark documentation.
Though the blended family of IBAB structures are not listed as individual historic landmarks, efforts have been made to maintain historic appearance, with compatible craftsmanship and materials, according to MMLP (Melotte Morse Leonatti Parker Ltd.) architect David Parker.
“All of them are getting new siding, and we’re re-roofing with an architectural shake shingle that looks very much like the original shakes which we believe the historic buildings would have had when they were built,” he said.
To help maintain style and character, more durable fiber-cement siding will replace the deteriorated wood, echoing the profile and look of the original fabric.
The project was under way in spring 2025.
Full disclosure: John and Anna Dressendorfer were the great-great-grandparents of SangamonLink editor Mike Kienzler.
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