By Sheila Edmunds, Village Historian

Aurora’s most romantically conceived house is a palatial lakeside Queen Anne

mansion towards the northern end of the village.It was built for Alonzo

Morgan Zabriskie (1867-1913), eldest son of Louise Morgan and N. Lansing

Zabriskie, in 1902, the year Alonzo married. His bride was the St. Louis

socialite Belle Loader.The new construction was located near the site of the

“Old Homestead” his grandfather, E. B. Morgan, built about 70 years before,

and was said to contain some of its bricks, probably for sentimental reasons.

According to a local contractor, Alonzo's house was “planned by the owner.”

Whether or not a professional architect was also involved (and the scope of

the plan makes this seem likely), it was designed on a very grand scale; it is

said to have some 40 rooms, including a ballroom.

The “Zabriskie house" remained in the family until 1949. Today it is usually

called the Abbott House, after Dave Abbott, the man who owned it from 1967

to 2000.