Historic Adams House
The Historic Adams House wasn’t built by Adams at all, but by Harris and Anna Franklin. Born into a Polish Jewish family in 1849, Harris migrated to the United States. He married Anna Steiner in 1870 and eventually made his way to Deadwood where he won, lost and won again his fortune in the wholesale liquor business. By the mid 1880’s their fortune seemed secure enough to erect a house worthy of their rising social status.

Deadwood of 1892 was a prosperous community, more advanced than many comparable western towns due to the robust gold mining industry. The population had grown to 5,000, over twice the size it is today. Deadwood was the first city in the Black Hills to adopt electric lights and by 1892 the streets, public buildings, hotels and some offices were lit by incandescent bulbs. By 1892 there were nearly 150 telephones in use in the Deadwood system. The Franklin house at 22 Van Buren Street was to be centrally heated, with hot and cold running water, and powered by electricity. Servants would be summoned by electronic bells, and the owners would communicate by telephone. The Van Buren Street property belonged to Mrs. Franklin who paid $1,175 for four parcels of land between 1883 and 1890. The property passed to Harris upon her death in 1902.

The Franklins commissioned architect Simeon Eisendrath of the Chicago firm of Adler & Sullivan to design their home. The house is typical of the Queen Anne style, with contrasting materials, a turret, stained glass, a balcony and a wraparound porch. Similar houses in urban centers at the time cost approximately $5,000-$6,000. Local contractors Tuplin & Johnston began work in 1892. Variously called the finest residence in Deadwood, the finest residence in the Black Hills, and the finest residence west of the Mississippi, the mansion was finished in a year. Once the Franklins took residence, they entertained extensively in their home. They redecorated in 1896, enlisting the Chicago firm of Mitchell and Halbach to paint delicate friezes on the parlor and bedroom walls.

Following Anna’s death, Harris, their son Nathan, his wife Ada and their daughter Mildred, a coachman and a housekeeper occupied the property. In 1905 Harris, having recently wed Sadie Rohr of Atlantic City, NJ, sold the home to his son for $1 and moved to New York. Nathan and Ada remodeled the house in 1904. The decorative scheme seen on the first floor, along with a reconfigured entryway and sitting room, is the result of this work. In 1920, following Nathan’s second term as Deadwood’s mayor, he sold the home to W.E. Adams for $8,500. He and Ada followed Franklin and their daughter, Mildred, to New York.

W.E. and Alice made few changes to the home. They built a garage at the back, enclosed part of the wraparound porch, and possibly altered the scullery/kitchen passage. They may have added French doors between the master bedroom and sitting room to afford daughter Helen privacy when visiting. Mr. Adams made two bathrooms and a closet from a room on the second floor. W.E.’s second wife Mary kept the home as it was, mindful of W.E.’s wishes. She had the first floor curtains manufactured in Denver, purchased the red davenport for the library, and wallpapered the bedrooms.

In its long history, the house has seen few alterations and those have luckily been documented. The restored Adams House open to the public today is almost exactly as W.E. and Mary left it over 70 years ago.

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