July 14, 2015

Successful Jacksonville tin merchant and civic leader, John Bilger, built this home at 540 Blackstone Alley in 1863, 2 years after he married fellow German Amanda Scheck. After Bilger’s partner, John Love, died of tuberculosis in 1867, Bilger expanded into hardware. When Bilger died in the 1877 cholera epidemic, Amanda continued to operate the business to support their 8 children. The Bilger House is one of Jacksonville’s few early brick residential structures and the only one in the Federalist architectural style.