The Samuel Van Sant House is an historic building located in

Le Claire, Iowa LeClaire is a city in Scott County, Iowa, United States. The population was 4,710 in 2020, a 65.4% increase from 2,847 in 2000, making it one of the fastest-growing communities in the Quad Cities. LeClaire is considered a suburb and part of th ...

, United States. The house was built in 1860 and it has been listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

since 1979. The property is part of the Houses of Mississippi River Men Thematic Resource, which covers the homes of men from LeClaire who worked on the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...

as riverboat captains, pilots, builders and owners. It is also a

contributing property In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic dist ...

in the

Cody Road Historic District Cody Road Historic District is a nationally recognized Historic districts in the United States, historic district located in Le Claire, Iowa, United States. It includes 60 buildings along a nine-block stretch of U.S. Route 67, Cody Road, the pr ...

Samuel Van Sant

Samuel was the son of J.W. Van Sant who was the head of the Le Claire Marine Railway boatyards. Along with John Smith, also of Le Claire, he developed the raftboat named the ''J.W. Van Sant'' after his father. It pushed the lumber rafts down the river from the forests in the north to the mills further south. Their invention revolutionized the transportation of logs and lumber down the Mississippi River. with They also developed the bowboat, which was a small sternwheeler set crosswise at the front of the raft to provide additional control over direction of movement. Van Sant moved to

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

in the 1880s where he was elected to the

Minnesota House of Representatives The Minnesota House of Representatives is the lower chamber of the U.S. state of Minnesota's Minnesota Legislature, legislature. It operates in conjunction with the Minnesota Senate, the state's upper chamber, to write and pass legislation, whic ...

and served as Speaker of the House. He later became the state's governor.

Architecture

The Samuel Van Sant House is a 1½-story frame house whose exterior is composed of narrow clapboards. It follows an L-shape plan. The house features a wide front

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

and the main roofline that parallel the street. There is also a large triangular wall

dormer A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a Roof pitch, pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window. Dormers are commonly used to increase the ...

that is centered on the front of the long arm of the "L". The house's windows have flat enframements with shallow triangular

pediment Pediments are a form of gable in classical architecture, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice (an elaborated lintel), or entablature if supported by columns.Summerson, 130 In an ...

s. A plain, wooden

porch A porch (; , ) is a room or gallery located in front of an entrance to a building. A porch is placed in front of the façade of a building it commands, and forms a low front. Alternatively, it may be a vestibule (architecture), vestibule (a s ...

is located in the angle of the "L" and is a later addition.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Van Sant, Samuel, House Houses completed in 1860 Houses in Le Claire, Iowa Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Scott County, Iowa Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in Iowa