Gifford Park shows off for Elgin Historic House Tour

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Many old-house fans like Pat and Jeff McIntire and Carmen and Michael Howard collect antiques or decorate with furniture styles inspired by the periods of their homes.

Visitors to the 30th Annual Elgin Historic House Tour will notice this right away when they see the McIntires' 1872 Italianate and the Howards' craftsman bungalow built a half-century later.

The tour is Saturday, Sept. 10, and Sunday, Sept. 11, and since it's an important anniversary, it features the original historic area east of downtown known as Gifford Park.

But if Elgin boasts diverse architectural styles — and there's even a rare carpenter gothic on this tour — it's also home to individual decorating styles. Yes, IKEA has helped decorate a home or two of the eight homes on the tour, although these are usually houses with more modern interiors because they were remodeled or expanded.

The Gifford Park Association is never stingy with its tour, and this year has added an extra house just to show a collection of Elgin advertising memorabilia, plus three very showy public buildings.

The McIntire home shows a lovely Italianate exterior, complete with a prairie garden where Jeff McIntire has coaxed 80 different types of grasses and flowers to grow after every other type of plant he tried died.

Choices that are flourishing include prairie dock, little and big blue stem grasses, Indian grass, golden rod, cardinal flower for the hummingbirds, Joe-Pye weed, asters with purple, blue and white flowers, milkweed, blue lobelia, hollyhock, phlox, obedient plant and butterfly weed.

“It's rocky, sandy soil,” said Jeff. “We took what was here, but we put compost on it one year.”

Yes, he installed that sidewalk of old Purington brand bricks that leads up to the house.

The home's Italianate architectural features include bay windows with curved tops, brackets and twisted trim on both the north and the south sides of the house and a double doorway that used to be the main entrance.

When the McIntires had the outside painted they knew they had to keep the green trim because the roof is green, but they toned down the stark white.

This is one of those old houses that has had a tough life, once being divided into several units where up to 28 people lived, and then suffering a fire. That means that much of the inside detail, such as the original woodwork, is gone.

Surviving are the fabulous marble fireplaces that the McIntires had to clean up, and the 11-foot-tall ceilings.

Their antique furniture includes a many-drawered oak chest with a brass plate identifying it as from the National Cash Register Company. Each employee's key would open only one drawer, said Jeff.

The showy burled walnut china cabinet with the rounded top in the dining room is from a later era, the 1920s, and belonged to Pat's mother.

The home was built in 1872 by William and Charlotte Hubbard, prominent citizens of the time. William sold stock to bring the first railroad to town and helped draw Gail Borden, a processor of canned milk, to Elgin.

The family members were abolitionists and attended the First Congregational Church, whose Victorian-era building is also open during the tour. One of their sons, Henry, served in the Civil War, then taught newly freed slaves at Fisk University.

As part of the tour, Jeff McIntire will show off his clock collection. One of his favorites was made by a company called Becker in 1890 in Germany. Its case is inlaid with different kinds of wood and is probably one of a kind.

The French mystery clock with the lovely lady holding a ball with the clock's face is named that because it was difficult to determine what makes it run.

And Jeff's collecting hobby gave the McIntires something very special — a name for their charming 6-year-old daughter. Ansonia was a very important clock company, named after the town in Connecticut where it started.

Nearby is Carmen and Michael Howard's craftsman bungalow, built in 1922. The oak woodwork and leaded glass are stunning, especially the buffet that runs the width of the dining room.

These homeowners decorated with furniture in mission and prairie style, some of it custom made.

The brick home with the wide porch and trapezoid shaped pillars inside and out does not have heartbreaking stories to tell — it has always been well cared for, say organizers of the walk. These started with Mary and James Jacobson. He worked at the Elgin Watch Factory, as did their son, Elmer.

The Howards looked at 40 or 50 houses and had a deal fall through on one before they saw the sign go up on this one four years ago.

“What really got us was the garage door — it's varnished,” said Michael Howard.

Michael Howard loves the windows and glass doors in the home. There are a lot of them, and many have nine panes.

“Certain times of the year the whole downstairs just lights up,” he said. “It flows through and is pretty neat.”

The interior paint colors fit the home's style, and Carmen Howard recorded all of them. Benjamin Moore's spring gold, laguna yellow, limestone and sulfur yellow; and Sherwin Williams adobe. The dark slate in the master bedroom is Dutch Boy dungeon bronze.

And don't miss the clever little office tucked off the bedroom.