Samuel Van Sant House

322 N. Cody Rd.
http://www.visitleclaire.com/pilothomes.html

Physical Description: A 1 1/2 story frame house sheathed in narrow clapboards, built about 1860. L-shaped in plan with a relatively wide front gable facing the street and the main roof parallel to the street. There is a large triangular wall dormer centered in the front of the long arm of the L. Windows have flat enframements with very, hallow triangular pediments. A plain wooden porch, tucked into the angles of the L is a later addition.

Significance: House was associated with Samuel Van Sant, son of the head of the Le Claire Marine Railways boatyards. In the late 1869's, while still a young man, Sam Van Sant designed and built the "J. W. Van Sant," a prototype for a raft boat which was to revolutionize the movement of logs and lumber down the Mississippi River. In the 1880's he moved to Minnesota, and later became governor of that state.