For years 132 N. Channing was a nasty two unit. The Gifford Park Association uses the proceeds from its annual Historic Elgin House Tour to purchase and rehab problem properties. In 30 years, this was the fourth one they did. The home had asphalt siding on it and the Gifford Park Association used volunteers to […]
According to Steve Stroud’s book There Used To Be 272 Division was built in ca 1875 for H. D. and Ida Barnes. H.D. was an assistant manager of the Elgin Packing Company. He owned the home until 1901 when it was sold to St. Joseph’s German Catholic Church for their rectory which it is still […]
This building was built as three apartments and was later changed into six. It deteriorted badly and was attracting nasty people as renters. It origianlly had porches with roofs but was changed into just decks. An investor bought it and changed it into four very nice condo units attracting excellent owners. Each unit […]
Several years ago the City of Elgin bought this house for $140,000 as it was a bit of a problem property. It had asphalt siding on it. They offered it to our neighborhood organizaiton to rehab. We had done four problem properties in the past but we felt this one was nice enough that it […]
When the current owners bought their house it had wide exposure aluminum siding and the porch balustrade was missing. The owners have spent years getting the original details replaced. I made a mockup for a proposed porch balustrade. I used two sizes of spindles to give them a choice. I did not make or install […]
When the current owners purchased 530 S. Liberty they knew the porch posts were unusual and probably not original but they had no idea what would be appropriate for their home as shown below. At the five year point of their ownership the Historicl Society was given old plan books from some prominent architects. […]
Our Back Porch This is our back porch when we bought the house in 1986. Probably in the 20’s they enclosed the porch and stuccoed the building. They moved the wall with the window on the left out five feet to enlarge the kitchen for one of five apartments. The wall on the right of […]
When Bob and Beth Tierney bought 375 Prairie it needed a lot of work. The porch was rotting off and the paint was peeling. They applied for and got a grant to rebuild the front porch. I made all of the pieces they needed matching the originals exactly – rails, balusters, apron frame, post bases, […]
The David C. Cook mansion at 105 N. Gifford was built in 1885 for David C. Cook, the son of a Methodist minister and prominent Elgin publisher. It cost $10,000 to build. The wonderful porch as seen in the old picture below is one that we hope to have a chance to get to […]
396 Division had its original front porch taken off some time ago as shown below. Luckily there are old pictures of the home available showing a front porch. An appropriate porch was put back. Here is the home before the paint was stripped off. Taking the paint off made an incredible difference as shown below […]