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Haegler Carus mansion in Peru, IL

The Hegeler Carus Mansion, located at 1307 Seventh Street in La Salle, Illinois is one of the Midwest’s great Second Empire structures. Completed in 1876 for Edward C. Hegeler, a partner in the nearby Matthiessen Hegeler Zinc Company, the mansion was designed in 1874 by noted Chicago architect William W. Boyington. The mansion is now owned and operated by the Hegeler Carus Foundation, and is open to the public. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2007.

 

Haegler made his fortune in the zinc industry. They are still making zinc-coated nails in LaSalle. He built a mansion close to his factory as seen below. This is the south side.

South side with the porches missing

 

My mother-in-law has lived in LaSalle for the past 50 years so we’ve gone there often and have been following the mansion . We never saw it with its original porch intact. Below is what we saw for 40 years. This is the east side with the new porch.

 

I have a woodworking business that specializes in old house porches so I called the guy wanting to learn from him. In talking I mentioned that I use treated lumber . He literally laughed at me on the phone. He said he wouldn’t use treated lumber for his doghouse I don’t know what kind of wood he used but I think he put some kind of epoxy coating on feeling that would protect it. I doubt he did the end grain and the owners didn’t keep it caulked and painted . It all rotted away in less than 10 years.  Even the stairs rotted away. They removed all of the rotting porch. I’ll bet now that he wishes he had used treated lumberEven the ceiling of the porch rotted.  I can’t imagine how he did not have an adequate roof coating on it,

There is still an original part of the porch on the north side as seen below:

Click here to view interior pictures

Haegler Carus21 | Flickr

 

 

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Interior balustrade at 409 Douglas

Many years ago, 409 Douglas had a new siding installed.

The neighborhood group did a Great Unveiling on the home and then the owner painted it nicely.

A previos owner had taken out part of the fancy interior stair balustrade to put in a wall to create an apartment

I made the parts to put it back.  Turning tiny spindles is very difficult.

Here is the finished  balustrade.  I also made two  newel posts,

I don’t normally do carving but had to here for the newel.

Using a bandsaw  I made the newel caps and pendents.

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507 E. Chicago

A previous owner had installed an inappropriate iron balustrade on the house at 507 E. Chicago.

Here is a picture:

 

The new owner hired me to put on an appropriate balustrade and newels.  I do not usually install but I did on this one. Here is a picture of my new balustrade and newels:

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211 Michigan

The owner took the paint off of the brick building at 211 Michigan.  I made parts to rebuild the porches.  He received a mayor’s award for his efforts.

 

Here it is with the paint on it:

Here it is under construction:

Here it is after rehab:

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Watch factory Depot

https://conta.cc/4oSdQTH

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Great Unveiling at 27 Rugby

Rock Island has a program they call the Great Unveiling, where volunteers take off substitute siding.  We asked if we could borrow the name and they agreed.  We have done over 30 Great Unveilings since then.  In the old-fashioned spirit of a barn raising, volunteers take off the siding and then have a big lunch.  The Gifford Park Association gives a grant of $5000 as an incentive to anyone that is willing to take their siding off.

Here is 27 Rugby with the siding on:

We recently did an unveiling at 27 Rugby.  At the painter’s request, we only did half the house.  The unveiling uncovered major marks for fancy elements that had been removed and will be replaced.  The fancy elements were not removed below the porch roof, so they have some excellent patterns to go by to replace the missing ones.

Here are volunteers removing siding

Here is an old picture showing the bracket in the eves

Here is another old picture

 

I made a full scale mockup of the bracket to see how it looked.  Getting the design right was a major problem. Several tentative sketches were made.  The one I finally made has the approval of the owners. Mockups have to be made full scale so people can see what they look like.

Here is the owner holding it up on the house go see if the scale is correct.

Here is what the owners envision the house to look like when finished

 

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Porch on Douglas

A woman at 643 Douglas contacted me about repairing her rotten newels, rails and one tread on her porch.  I agreed to take on the project.  I bought the materials and cut them to size for $600, and Dan Jensen built the porch for $1000.  She got a second bid for $2100 so she took ours.

Here is the front of the newel taken off to show the rot:

This shows the rotten rail:

Only one tread was replaced. As always,  I planed the treads to 1 1/4, rounded the edges and painted all sides.  If only one side is painted they tend to cup.A traditional cove was placed under each tread.

When we were finished there was a problem that concerned her – too difficult to explain.  Dan had to take everything apart and start fresh.

 

 

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Porch stair balustrade

The people at 24 N. Porter built a new porch stair balustrade that did not match the original. As seen below, the rail on the stairs does not match the rail on the porch and it should. The city cited them for it and made plans for them for the rebuild.

Here are the plans the city drew up

Their plans did not really fit the actual dimensions of the porch.  My wife and I struggled for a long time trying to figure out the best configuration.  We made several full scale mockups.

This is the mockup we finally decided on.I made the parts and Dan Jensen built the balustrade.  I turned the spindles and a finial for the newel.

 

I took off their 2 X treads and surfaced them to 1 1/4 closer to what an old porch would be.  I painted all four sides before installing to reduce cupping. I rounded over the edges and made a treated cove molding to go under each tread.

 

I made 20 hand cut fancy porch apron parts.  That was a huge job.  The outside cut could be made three at a time on the bandsaw but the inside cut had to be cut with a hand held scroll saw, one piece at a time.  Very tedious and the result is mediocre. The scroll saw does not always go where you want it to.

I pummeled the newel using a side grinder.

You use a compass to draw a circle on all five sides of the post and then grind up to the line to pummel the post.

Here is the finished porch.  The work cost the owner $1600.  Dan got $1000 to build the porch and I got paid $600 to make the parts.  A GPA grant paid half.

 

 

 

 

 

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New newels at 155 S. Channing

The porch rail newels and balustrade were rebuilt many years ago.  The parts that were not treated lumber rotted away. The owner asked me to rebuild the newel posts exactly as they were. I started making the parts and realized it would be too hard to tell anyone how to install them so I decided to make the newels myself.  I don’t usually install. Here is a picture of a rotten newel:

Below is the old post cap which I reused. I turned a new final.

The steps were an unpainted treated lumber.  I hate the look of it as seen below.

The owner did not want to change but I talked him into it. I had recently done a stair across the street that were unpainted treated lumber.  I planed down the treads added a cove under each tread and had the risers painted white. I convinced the owner to do the same.  Here are the steps I did across the street:

I feel strongly about the risers being painted a trim c0olor, not the color of the steps.  Below is what it used to look like on the house next door.

 

I convinced the owner to paint risers white.

I


 

Below is the finished steps with my new newels. I planed the old 2 X treads down to 1 1/4 like the old timers used to do.  I added a cove under each step just like they always used to. It gives it a classic look.

 

Six of the fancy post bottoms were rotten.  I turned new ones in treated lumber as seen below.  The one on the right is an original.

 

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Dunham Castle in Wayne, IL

 

Below is how the property looked in 2016. The home had been broken up into apartments.  There was actually a waiting list to get an apartment.

By 1880, Mark Dunham had become fabulously wealthy, and decided to build a mansion on his property. Dunham wanted to integrate French chateau designs with modern American architectural trends. The house, now known as Dunham Castle, is on the northwest corner of the property. The interior had been converted into apartments and then back to a private residence, but the exterior remains intact. Dunham himself designed the building with some help from Elgin builder Smith Hoag. The house is 70 by 100 feet (21 m × 30 m) and stands two-and-a-half stories tall. The brick was imported from Racine, Wisconsin and sits on a foundation of Batavia stone. The northeast corner featured an octagonal tower, while a round tower adorns the southeast corner. The center of the main (eastern) exposure features a gable with three arched windows. Each of the main floors on the east has three pairs of windows with decorative lintels, although the main entrance takes the place of the central pair on the first floor. The roof is steep with patterned tile. Although the exterior has been well preserved since its 1883 construction, the interior has been completely remodeled. Below is a picture after being remodeled.



A person bought the property to rehab it as a single family home.  He ripped up too much and got in way over his head.  When the recession came it was foreclosed upon.  

In 2016, a charitable group was allowed to show the house as a money maker.  We toured it.  I had been admiring it for 30 years, but never saw the inside. Click below to see the pictures before it was remodeled.  Click 2 and 3 at the bottom to see more.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/31300792@N08/albums/72157633414121525/

 

In 2022, I offered to give the owner my before pictures in exchange for a tour of the finished house.  He agreed.

They remodeled the house and did not restore it.  It was all done very high end and would have been very expensive.  The owner wanted to turn it into a venue but the city of Wayne would not allow it so he made it into a single-family home.  He took up hardwood floors and inlays and put in fancier ones.  He took out nice fireplace mantles and put in bigger, fancier ones.  He replaced all of the windows.  He took out a fancy walnut interior balustrade and added a new one.  When you replace an element you have to go by modern codes so the new balustrade is 36 inches tall.  It looks terrible.

Click below to see current pictures.  Hit the 2 and 3 to see all of them.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/31300792@N08/albums/72177720304644064/with/52577663997

 

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