📍1414 North Benton Avenue Springfield, MO

This American Foursquare was designed with classical details and was built in 1907 by a recently widowed businesswoman named Elizabeth Stoughton; Mrs. Stoughton was part owner of the Springfield Street Railway Company. A prominent Springfield Physician, Dr. J. I. Evans purchased the house ten years later and a carriage step engraved with his name remains on the property today.

In 1951, General Ralph Truman, a noteworthy military figure, purchased the house. "Snapper" Truman was cousin to then President Harry S Truman and the President visited at this house for three days during a 35th Division Army Reunion in 1952. Wires were run from room to room by the Secret Service for this visit, some of which are still visible in the back stairwell. The former owner was former Springfield Mayor Tom Carlson who purchased this house for his family in 1987. The current owner of the house is Danny Crisp who purchased the house in 2020.

The exterior of this house is constructed with cut stone and bronze brick. The house is dominated by a massive wraparound porch.The ten-foot-deep porch roof rests on Ionic columns with painted terra cotta capitals; the columns rest on stone piers. The steps to the porch as well as the lentils and sills are all of cut stone. porte cochere extends from the porch across the driveway. The house has wide eaves which are decorated with modillions. The dormers have sawtooth shingles for siding.

The hipped roof originally had slate tiles with terra cotta caps and ridge lines. Today, a new roof on the house closely resembles the original. There are three brick outbuildings in the rear yard, the smallest of which probably predates the house. The front room, parlor and dining room are all open to each other, separated only by colonnades. The Ionic columns (replicating the columns on the outside of the house) have bronze Czechoslovakian light fixtures which match the ceiling fixtures. All woodwork on the first floor is mahogany.

The Italian marble fireplace in the parlor as well as the alabaster newel post light were purchased at the 1904 World's Fair, three years before the construction of this house. The fireplace originally burned coal and is now equipped with gas burning logs. The china cabinet in the dining room is framed with Ionic columns and topped with an egg-and-dart motif and small dentil pattern. The floor on the first story is oak and is laid in a diamond pattern in the front room, parlor and dining room. These three rooms also have high coffered ceilings.

A small hall or foyer is at the center of the first floor which serves as a hall between the front room and the kitchen. There are two doorways on the north wall of the foyer; the door toward the front of the house leads three steps down to a guest half bath and the door toward the kitchen leads to the cellar. Two photographs taken of President Truman during his visit to this house are displayed on the foyer wall.

On the second story, a large hall incorporates three separate stairways. The main stairway is in the center of the hall flanked by the back or kitchen stairs on one side and a staircase leading to large attic other. The attic with its three large bedroom on dormers has been insulated and finished throughout in beaded ceiling.

A wall dividing the two front bedrooms has been carefully removed and beamed, creating the spacious present day Master Bedroom. An adjoining bath leads from the Master
Bedroom into a small dressing room. The bedroom to the back or East of the house is used as a guest room and serves as an entry to the second floor loft. The door to this loft originally opened onto the roof of a six by nine foot porch off the back of the kitchen. This porch has been replaced by a large open two story family room and loft.

Dark pine balusters for the loft railing were handlathed to echo the mission stairway in the front of the house; the loft is supported by dark pine columns. Southern exposure windows look out on a garden in the side yard. The outside of this addition is brick colored stucco and the roof, eaves, and fascia replicate that of the house. The entire house is heated with hot water, including the addition where tubing is run under the floors for heat. The house has two central air conditioning units, one in the attic serves the second and third story and one in the loft serves the new addition, while the original first floor remains quite cool in the summer due to the deep shaded porch.