Geneva home seeking a place in history
The owners of a home of a businessman who helped make Geneva what it is today are seeking to place it on the National Register of Historic Places.
The owners of the Fargo House, 316 Elizabeth Place, started the process Monday night by getting the approval of the Geneva City Council.
The application now goes to the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, which will consider whether to send it on to the National Park Service. The NPS runs the registry.
"I love history and I love looking beyond my lifetime," said Gerard Keating, 43, who owns the site with his wife, Janet, 41.
They bought the property in 1999, and spent several years rehabilitating it, remodeling the kitchen and adding a back porch.
"We made a commitment when we bought it to do what we could to preserve it," said Keating.
It was built between 1898 and 1900 by Henry Bond Fargo, a real estate developer and businessman who also served two terms as Geneva's mayor and a term as state legislator. He built several edifices in Geneva, including the building that housed the Fargo Theater movie house on West State Street. He also built the Fargo Theater and Fargo Hotel in Sycamore, and the Fargo Theater in DeKalb. Fargo was a fourth cousin, once removed, from a co-founder of Wells Fargo and Co. and president of American Express Co.
The house and its coach house were designated Geneva landmarks in 2006, at the Keatings' request. That prevents them or any subsequent owner from making substantial changes to the exterior of the building without first getting approval from the Geneva City Council.
The Keatings pursued the designation after a neighboring property, one of the twin Fargo cottages on Shady Place, was torn down in 2004 to make way for a new home. Keating and a group of neighbors had offered to buy the building and rehabilitate it, but were rebuffed.
The Mission Style Fargo House and coach house feature walls of quarried limestone (39 inches thick on the first floor) and red clay tile roofs. They were constructed by locally renowned builder August Wilson, who along with his brother, Oscar, studied with Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesin.
It's a big place; the third story of the home features an 1,800-square-foot ballroom. Keating uses the coach house, which has an apartment in it, for his office.
The Fabyan Villa; Riverbank Laboratories; the Geneva Country Day School building; and the Geneva Historic District, all in Geneva, are in the National Register.
Being listed does not provide a place or building any protection from destruction. Under federal law, the homeowner can do what they like with it, unless they received federal money for their project.
"What it (registration) does do is promote awareness of the structure so people will want to protect it," said Keating, who was once president of Preservation Partners of the Fox Valley.
"We're doing this because we do not want it torn down 30, 40, 50 years from now."