Sturm, Louis, House

Despite the application of narrow aluminum siding, the Louis Sturm residence remains one of Saline's outstanding examples of late Gothic Revival architecture, with refined detail on bargeboards, window hoods and porches. William Easlick purchased this lot in 1873 and presumably built around this time. Louis Sturm bought the property for $1210 in April, 1874. Sturm arrived from Germany around 1860 and soon joined his older brother, Jacob--who had come to Saline to stay with an uncle in 1858--in a successful harness business on the Chicago Road. The business eventually expanded to include a hardware and carriage manufacture; the Sturms built carriages for local, state, and national customers. After his brother's death in 1900, Louis continued the business, which was subsequently continued by Louis' son, William, after the elder Sturm's death in 1903.

This elegantly-detailed residence sits on a lot landscaped with mature shrubbery and shade trees. Although covered with aluminum siding in the late 1960s, the two-story frame home retains its late Gothic Revival features in the peaked window trim, pointed-arch eaves line trim, and steeply pitched roof and dormer. The basically L-shaped plan contains a one-story rear garage addition and a front and side porch with brackets and trim at the eaves. A gabled-roof barn sits to the rear of the property.