Set on a large three-lot corner parcel, the Franklin E. and Eva E. Keefe House is one of the finest early twentieth century houses remaining in the city of Black River Falls. Featuring a transitional design that combines Queen Anne style and Colonial Revival style elements, this clapboard-clad house has a two-story-tall, hip-roofed, rectilinear plan main block and a main façade that is essentially symmetrical in design and is dominated by its full-width, classically detailed front porch. The house was designed and built by James J. McGillivray, a prominent Black River Falls builder and architect.

His original client was Black River Falls druggist Adolph J. Klofanda, Sr., but Klofanda sold the house before it was finished to another, who promptly sold it to Francis E. Keefe and Eva E. Keefe, and it is the Keefes who completed it and were its first occupants. Francis E. Keefe (1861-1945) was a businessman in Black River Falls, where he operated a successful undertaking establishment and retail furniture store, and he was still living in this house when he died in 1945. Mrs. Keefe continued to live there until her death in 1957, after which it was occupied by their daughter, Verna Keefe, who was still living there at the time of her death in 1972. Subsequently, the house was sold to others, but it has always been a well-maintained single-family residence and the very fine exterior and interior of the Keefe House has remained in a largely unchanged state throughout its 111-year historya.

This property is private. Please respect the rights and privacy of the owners.