Restoration at Historic Ben Fuller Farmhouse to Begin in Fall

The Forest Preserve District of DuPage County will begin work this fall to restore the Historic Ben Fuller Farmhouse located just East of the Graue Mill and Museum in Oak Brook. Completion should be in 2015 and will coincide with the 100th Anniversary of the FPDDC.

The FPDDC is partnering with the Fullersburg Historic Foundation to transform the building into a public education center. The lower level will accommodate programs and exhibits, and a new addition reminiscent of the building's former summer kitchen will provide space for support services and additional programming.

Ben Fuller settled in the area of present-day Oak Brook and Hinsdale in the 1830s and became a founding and prominent member of the Fullersburg community, which at one point had saw- and gristmills, blacksmith shops, a post office, a wagon maker, and the only stop on a stagecoach route that linked Chicago and Naperville. Fuller's home is historically important because it's one of the oldest regional examples of balloon-frame construction, a faster, easier construction method that caught on quickly in the early 1800s with the advent of mass-produced nails and mill-cut lumber.

For more information on the history Old Fullersburg and the heritage sites of the area, visit the Fullersburg Historic Foundation's website, www.fullersburg.org.