Naperville panel rejects critics, OKs historic Kroehler mansion color scheme changes
Black windows and a darker roof will be the color scheme for Naperville’s historic Kroehler mansion despite pushback from preservation advocates.
Historic Preservation Commission members voted Thursday to approve exterior changes to the mansion’s original design plan as the building, now more than a century old, undergoes restoration and renovation as part of a new residential development.
The changes include demolition and reconstruction of the front porch, installation of roof shingles that will now be black instead of dark brown and — most controversial of all — window frames that will be black instead of white.
Naperville-based firm DJK Custom Homes said the adjustments are needed to preserve the mansion while matching the features of the neighboring townhouses that are part of the Heritage Place, a development approved by the Naperville City Council in 2020.
DJK had started installing the black frame windows and demolishing the front porch before a complaint was lodged in March charging that the black windows were inconsistent with the mansion’s approved plan, resulting in a stop work order.
The company is seeking retroactive approval for the changes that had already been started.
“Our request is not intended to modernize or diminish the historic character of the property at all,” said Dan Kittilsen, president of DJK Custom Homes. “It is intended to create a more restrained and complimentary architectural background. One that allows the restored Kroehler mansion … to remain the defining visual element of Heritage Place.”
Kittilsen pointed out that several homes in the historic district have black windows, which makes the mansion’s color scheme more uniform with the historic district as a whole.
“I don’t think the windows will change the character of the mansion,” said Randolph Given, a Heritage Place resident. “I think they’re consistent with both the neighborhood and the immediate block.”
But some preservation advocates disagreed.
“The installed windows have a look that is not appropriate for Kroehler mansion,” Naperville Preservation Inc. President Bill Simon said. “This black look is currently trendy with the modern farmhouse look and contemporary homes.”
Former Historic Preservation Commissioner Mark Urda argued that the color change was not only inconsistent with the building’s historical character, but a violation of the city’s municipal code that should lead to penalties.
“We cannot set a precedent when we can just do anything we want and then come back and say, ‘Is it OK?’ Because frankly, sir, it’s not OK,” Urda said. “We have these rules. We need to live by them.”
The Kroehler mansion was built in the early 1900s by Peter E. Kroehler, owner of the Naperville Lounge Co. and founder of the Kroehler Manufacturing Co.
Before the Heritage Place development, social service agency Little Friends had owned the mansion for 30 years. In 2019, Little Friends wanted to sell the building so it could move to a new property in Warrenville. When a deal to sell it to North Central College fell through, however, the nonprofit sought a demolition permit from the city so it could clear the site for future development.
While the council OK’d razing the structure, it also decided to offer $450,000 to Little Friends if it could find a developer willing to purchase and preserve the mansion.
Investment group Ram West Capital ultimately struck a deal to buy the property as part of the residential development with the caveat that the historic home be kept intact. DJK came on as the builder.
Kittilsen said that while the original design application submitted to the city said the windows would be white, DJK always intended for them to be black. It wasn’t until he was contacted by code enforcement that he realized the original application was inconsistent with the plan, he said.
While some homes in the historic district may have black windows, some commissioners said they did not think that was sufficient justification for the color change.
“In historic preservation spaces, (character) means you retain the original materials, and if you cannot retain the original materials, you retain the features, and black is not white,” said Christine McNulty, a Naperville Heritage Society representative and non-voting commission member.
Commissioner Robert Sanchez, the only commissioner to vote against the color change, said that while black may look appealing, it does not match the mansion’s original prairie style and ultimately modernizes the building.
“Builders make changes all the time … our challenge here, though, is this is a very specific district,” Sanchez said. “We’re trying to preserve something that we’re essentially letting get chiseled away over time by making every little (adjustment). … In-kind to me means in-kind in color and material.”
Other commissioners, however, said they believed that since the city’s historic preservation and design guidelines do not specify maintaining original colors for windows as a requirement, the requests should be granted.
“There’s no reference in (the guidelines) to color-specific windows, and as the petition points out, there are black windows throughout all of the historic district, namely two houses down on a craftsman that we recently approved has black windows,” Commissioner Jacob Sandborn said.
Commissioner Patricia O’Brien said that while she was troubled by the errors that led to the situation, ultimately the commission needed to be realistic.
“In the grand scheme of things, I come down to this question: Is it better that this building is preserved and used and the area beautified and become more valuable and have a tax base, or is it better that we (might) have lost it?” she said.
cstein@chicagotribune.com