In 1882, Wesley Corron, a breeder of Percheron Norman draft horses, purchased the lot at 205 N. Gifford for $900. He wanted a haven in the city where he could retire. He built a wonderful home and died in 1889.
By the 1990's the house had suffered many changes and neglect. It was a rooming house with a hasp on every door for roomers. Below is a picture of the south side. Notice there was no bay window.
Neighborhood Housing Services had rehabbed a wonderful house at 326 E. Chicago for
their offices. NHS paid $50,000 for 326 E. Chicago shown below and put another $50,000 into restoring the porches and exterior from an old picture.
As shown below, 326 E. Chicago became an inspiration for the neighborhood. Gifford Park Association volunteers spent many hours on the home and grounds.
NHS decided to do it again by buying a problem property and rehabbing it for their new offices. They bought 205 N. Gifford for $40,000. Below is a picture of the west side after the asphalt siding was taken off.
Volunteers from the Gifford Park Association cleaned out the house filling several dumpsters. The eccentric widow that owned it had covered part of the driveway with carpet remnants. Being a pack rat, she filled the entire back staircase to the ceiling, and the basement and space under the porch were filled to capacity.
Dan and Pat Miller volunteered to oversee the rehab. An old Sanborn map indicated it had a smaller front porch and bay window and both were put back. The porch was designed with the help of evidence left on the house and Dan made many of the decorative elements.
GPA member Paul Bednar designed a landscape plan for the home and got a $2000 gift from the Hoffer Foundation for the materials. .
In 1990 the fully rehabbed home was featured on the Historic Elgin House Tour. To see the page from the tour booklet
click here.
In the year 2000, 205 N. Gifford was sold for $135,000. The woman that bought it was not able to maintain it properly and when she lost her job with the crash the disrepair escalated. Below is a picture of a rotted porch element.
In 2012, 205 N Gifford was foreclosed upon and Mark Graves, an investor from Marengo, bought it for $57,000. He had been a high end custom home builder until the crash put him out of work so he switched gears to rehabbing. He approached 205 N. Gifford as a high end custom home builder taking three years to do everything to the highest of quality. He added very nice paneled wainscoting on the first floor, all new oak floors and lots of marble and granite in the baths and kitchen. The exterior siding was in bad shape so with the help of an Architectural Grant from the city he resided the home in clear cedar siding. Below is a picture of the siding being replaced.
All three porches had rotted away and Mark replaced them duplicating exactly what was there. Below is a picture of the house today.
DATES TO REMEMBER
June 16, 2016 General Membership Meeting
Sat. & Sun., Sept. 10 & 11: 35th annual Historic Elgin House Tour featuring the Elgin Historic District
