Once slated for redevelopment, Bloomingdale-area farm is restored by Itasca family
Nestled in a pocket of sprawling suburbia, between a cluster of Bloomingdale-area neighborhoods and commercial developments, sits a serene 10-acre farm that one family has made into its own version of paradise.
It's the kind of place you don't notice until you do. It certainly wasn't much to look at when Bill and Holly Murphy stumbled upon it in 2017. But the Itasca couple bought it anyway and spent a year and a half fixing it up, turning it into the farm Bill dreamed of owning since he was a boy.
The newly restored property is an idyllic scene for neighbors, too, especially compared to what it had become. The rundown barns, one of them a faded green, have been refurbished and repainted a bright, traditional red. The choking weeds have been removed and the fields tamed. Decaying sheds and an old Quonset hut have been torn down.
Now, neighbors line up along the pristine white fence to watch the cows graze. Drivers pull off busy Army Trail Road to browse for flowers in the small greenhouse.
Even the Murphys' children - Margaret, 22, Bill, 20, and Jack, 17 - can see the endless possibilities.
"This place is perfect," Holly Murphy said. "You look around, and nothing like this exists around here anymore."
It's almost hard to imagine that, had things gone according to a developer's plans, her family's small, rural treasure would have ceased to exist, too.
What almost was
Three years ago, the quaint farmhouse, rustic barns and open pastures were slated to be redeveloped into 84 row houses.
The property had belonged to the Plass family for seven generations - first as a dairy farm and then as a site for their appliance business - before descendants decided to put it up for sale.
In 2016, DRH Cambridge Homes Inc. had a contract to buy the land in hopes of constructing multifamily residences, said Sean Gascoigne, Bloomingdale's community and economic development director. The plan required an annexation agreement with the village because a majority of the project site was in unincorporated DuPage County.
DRH Cambridge Homes started the public hearing process and eventually reduced the number of row houses to 76. But the developer struggled to balance project costs with density, while also meeting the village's expectations for public improvements.
"At some point, it becomes a numbers game," Gascoigne said. "They were not able to bring those two worlds together."
Vocal opposition from the adjacent Brookdale Estates neighborhood played a role, too. Residents fought the project at village board meetings, Gascoigne said, and were "instrumental" in expressing their concerns over building size, traffic congestion and other quality-of-life issues.
After more than a year, developers walked away. That's when the Murphys stepped in.
Chasing a dream
Growing up in Itasca, when farmland and agriculture were much more prominent, Bill Murphy raised champion sheep for the 4-H Club.
Someday, he told himself, he would own a farm where he could raise cows.
Murphy carried that dream into adulthood, when he and his wife would frequently visit the Kenyon Brothers dairy farm near Elgin. They eventually began looking for a farm of their own, even venturing as far as Michigan. But then they had kids, and focused on running the Itasca greenhouse that Bill's father started - putting their dream on hold.
A few years ago, with their children grown and the greenhouse business doing well, Holly Murphy told her husband they should start looking again.
"I know a place that's for sale," he replied. "Do you want to take a look?"
It was rundown and overgrown, but Holly fell in love with the Plass farm the moment she and her husband visited it one rainy day.
The couple was outside chatting with their Realtor when a gust of wind blew over the "For Sale" sign at the front of the property. Holly took that as an omen.
They made an offer and closed on the property Sept. 7, 2017.
"I think you just sort of fall into things sometimes," Holly said. "For it to have happened, and for (Bill) to have been so lucky and for us to be so blessed to have a lifetime dream come true is amazing because I don't think that happens for everybody."
'A wonderful legacy'
All had been quiet at the Plass farm since Karen Lees and her neighbors successfully fought developers' plans to turn it into row houses. The barns were in bad shape, and the property was a bit neglected, Lees said, but at least it wasn't a construction site.
Then they started noticing some changes. A fence was installed. The dilapidated, abandoned cars in the yard disappeared. The junk was cleaned up. And to Lees' delight, there were cows roaming in the fields.
The Murphys spent about 18 months restoring the site. This spring, when Margaret Murphy graduated from college and moved into the farmhouse, they opened a greenhouse - an extension of their Itasca business.
"They've improved this property immensely," Lees said. "Everybody's just elated."
Though the land was never annexed into Bloomingdale, the village has received nothing but positive feedback from residents, business owners and other admirers, Gascoigne said.
Typically, the redevelopment of a property is imminent once plans are in motion, he said, even if a project changes developers or alters in scope. The Murphys were able to buck that trend.
"For us to find out that a single owner came in and was able to make it work as its original use as a farm, that is somewhat unique," Gascoigne said. "Usually it goes in the reverse direction."
The Murphy family's vision for their farm isn't complete. They intend to start growing flowers and plants for their greenhouse business, Holly Murphy said. In another section, they want to create an orchard.
Just as it did for Plass, she and her husband hope the property will provide opportunities for their family for generations to come.
"That we took this farm and restored it to the way it was, and that so many people still appreciate that," Holly Murphy said, "is a wonderful legacy."