The Mitchell-Rountree Stone Cottage

The Mitchell-Rountree Stone Cottage. . , This stone house was owned and occupied by the Mitchell and Rountree families for nearly 120 years. It was built in 1838–1839 for Revolutionary War veteran and Methodist minister Samuel Mitchell, Sr., and his wife, Eleanor. They constructed the house using design elements commonly found in their home states of Virginia and Maryland, with the first floor consisting of a central hall flanked by a parlor and a drawing room, plus a dining room at the rear of the house. A second floor was added to the dining room wing in 1894. Other small additions were made to the north end of the house shortly thereafter., Several members of the Mitchell family also lived in the house, including their widowed daughter, Ellen A. Gridley, and her daughters, as well as Henry Christopher. Originally enslaved, Christopher had been given to the Mitchells by Eleanor’s parents in 1831. Samuel, who preached “against slavery habitually,” immediately manumitted him. In 1854, Platteville’s founder John H. Rountree, the Mitchells’ son-in-law, purchased the home. The house was used as a school in the 1850s. It was lived in by Rountree’s son Hiram and his wife, Sophia Aspinwall Rountree, beginning in 1869. The family farmed the surrounding 40 acres and raised hogs for market. In 1894, the four Rountree daughters, Nellie, Laura, Bertha, and Mary, purchased the house from the John H. Rountree estate. Both Bertha’s and Mary’s weddings occurred inside the house in 1902. Laura, who lived here her entire life, donated the house to the Grant County Historical Society in 1959., The Mitchell-Rountree Stone Cottage thus reflects the migration of people from the East Coast to the lead mining district of the new Wisconsin territory and is associated with prominent citizens who shaped the early history of Platteville. , Erected 2025 , Grant County Historical Society , Wisconsin Historical Society