Soup, pie luncheon raising funds for upkeep of McElhinny House

The Fairfield Women?s Club will serve an Election Day soup and pie luncheon from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday at the McElhinny House.

The menu will include cheesy potato soup, vegetable beef soup, cornbread, assorted flavors of pie, and beverage.

Deliveries and carry-out lunches are available and can be called to 472-5762 or 919-5761.

Tickets, available Tuesday at the McElhinny House, are $9.

The proceeds from the luncheon will be used to the maintenance of the historic house.

The McElhinny House on Court Street, just north of Jefferson County Courthouse, was built for pioneer merchant Robert McElhinny by carpenter John Lynn Jr. Both men came to Fairfield from Washington County in Pennsylvania.

McElhinny acquired the building site Jan. 15, 1846, purchasing two lots for a total cost of $60. Fairfield was less than 7 years old, and Iowa was still several months away from statehood.

Most sources list the initial construction of the house as beginning in 1846, with completion between 1852 and 1857.

The McElhinny family?s home was Fairfield?s first showplace. One early source described the home as the embodiment of ?New England dignity and Southern hospitality.? From its inception, it was elegant with furnishings made of walnut, rosewood, and mahogany.

Originally, the house had a parlor and sitting room on the south, a library, dining room, and kitchen on the north, with a summer kitchen in the rear. Five bedrooms, each with its own fireplace, were upstairs. The house was surrounded by a high board fence.

Robert McElhinny, once the largest private land owner in Jefferson County, died May 6, 1878, at the age of 74.

The house remained in the McElhinny family for 69 years. At times, it was closed and vacant, while at other times, it was rented as a rooming house or a private home.

After the McElhinny family sold the house, it had various owners, then sometime after World War I, it was bought by Fairfield School District, named Central School and used as elementary school until 1931.

In 1933, it was purchased by the Fairfield Women?s Club through a bequest from the estate of Elizabeth McElhinny, daughter of Robert McElhinny. In her will, McElhinny gave $10,000 to the club to purchase a club house.

Since then, not only have Fairfield Women?s Club meetings been held in the historic house, but it has been the setting for parties, weddings, anniversaries, receptions, reunions, meetings, and other events.

After the McElhinny House was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, the McElhinny House Foundation was created as a nonprofit corporation to promote and preserve the historical background of Fairfield and the surrounding area, with the McElhinny House as its focal point.