Two descendants of the stonemasons who built the Basin Park Hotel, St. Elizabeth’s church, Black Bass Dam, the train station and many other stone structures in Eureka Springs came to Eureka Springs last weekend to visit a stone house at 14 Judah built by Clarence Arthur (C. A.) Stillions between 1902 and 1906.
Clarence Arthur Stillions of Washington, D.C., who goes by C. A., is the grandson of his namesake and the great-grandson of John Thomas Stillions, who worked with his son doing massive stone masonry work in early Eureka Springs. Also visiting was John Covan, the great-grandson of John Thomas Stillions and the grand-nephew of Clarence Arthur Stillions.
The descendants were invited to tour the house by present owners, Janet and Scott Seefeldt, an Oklahoma couple who purchased and restored the home after falling in love with it during vacation trips to Eureka Springs. The home had been vacant for many years before being purchased and restored by the Seefeldts.
he senior Clarence Arthur Stillions married Minnie Bradley in 1901, and five of the couple’s 11 children were born at the 14 Judah home. When Eureka’s stone masonry building boom ended in about 1917-1918, the family left to find work elsewhere. The round column at the northwest corner of the home still bears his initials, CAS, the year of completion and the stonemason’s symbols carved in stone.
- A. Stillions had been through the home once many years ago. He said after his most recent visit that he was very pleased to see that the home has been restored and is being used.
“Someone is living in it,” Stillions said. “Someone is going to keep it up. It is really satisfying to know it is going to be around for a while.”
Stillions said you rarely see stone buildings like that being constructed today.
“The masonry used today is mostly just a cladding or a finish,” Stillions said. “You can’t have a more durable finish than with stone, but stone buildings still require lots of care. You have to keep the joints filled, keep the vines off it and keep it updated.”
Stillions followed his family tradition of building by becoming an architect. He retired five years ago after spending the previous 18 years as the architectural structure engineer for the Architect of the Capitol, responsible for the U.S. Capitol.
“Our responsibilities extended to all of the House and Senate office buildings, the Library of Congress, the Botanic Gardens and Supreme Court,” he said. “We were basically the facility manager for those properties.”
The Seefeldts started their Eureka Springs story in 1994 when they got married in Eureka Springs. They would often come back on vacation, and became intrigued with the stone house after staying at a bed and breakfast nearby.
“The first thing I noticed was that stone house,” Janet said. “I was just drawn to it. It didn’t look like anyone had been there for a long time. I just couldn’t get that house out of my mind. I would walk over every day. There was just something about it. I couldn’t stay away from it.”
Even though neighbors told her it wasn’t for sale, she tracked down ownership records and made contact with the current owner, Nancy Wencek, in the summer of 2018. Although the stone house had been in Nancy’s family for nearly 80 years by then, the timing was right and the Seefeldts purchased the stone house in December of that year.
“It is a captivating structure,” Janet said. “Obviously, Eureka Springs has a lot of historical homes, but there is something unique about that house.”
For the most part, the house is still pretty much as it was originally.
“Probably the most modern update was in the early ‘70s when the kitchen cabinets were replaced,” she said. “We purchased it and started restoration. It’s a second home for us, but we’re there every month. We like to participate in local events like the Yards and Yards and Yards sale. You get to meet people. It is almost a social event for us.”
Between 1918 and 1940, the stone house went through several owners including a one-year period from February 1939 through January 1940 when it was owned by the infamous Dr. Norman Baker. In 1940, Dr. Baker sold the stone house to Onnie Coker and it passed through four generations in that family – the Cokers (Onnie and Elizabeth), the Ferrells (Enoch and Grace), the Tildens (Donald and Elizabeth) and, finally to Nancy Wencek, the great-granddaughter of Onnie and Elizabeth.