Old meets new on Elgin house tour

The past decade has seen a great deal of revitalization in downtown Elgin, but not all of it can be seen from the street.

This weekend, the NorthEast Neighborhood Association's house tour will rectify the situation while satisfying local curiosity and providing holiday decorating ideas by concentrating its focus on the downtown district.

"That's what I like about house walks," said Jennifer Phillips of NENA. "It can be whatever you want it to be. There are always people who want to see inside that house. Then some people want to know how they decorate, looking for new ideas, and then some people don't decorate for themselves and it's a way to enjoy the season."

Before the houses are chosen various neighborhoods are considered. This year, the NENA committee decided to showcase some of the newer developments, as well as the traditional vintage homes. Three of the properties are located in new developments in the downtown area and two are lofts, transformed and repurposed from a long ago era.

The downtown location affords the ability to collaborate with "Elgin: Homes for the Holiday" celebration and the "Window Wonderland" event.

"We want to celebrate all that Elgin has to offer," Phillips said.

Kurt Kresmery believes his home at 160 E. Highland Ave. is a good fit for the tour.

"My house is different than a lot of them," he said.

The loft is part of the former Ackemann's Department Store and is situated in what was once the adjoining storage building. The result is a blend of old and new.

"My house is one of the oldest buildings in Elgin," he said. "If you see it from the street, you'd drive by and think, 'There's nothing in there,' but people come in and their jaws hit the floor."

The loft often leaves people speechless, according to Kresmery.

"I've had so many people try to describe my house to their wives and to their friends and they just can't do it. You just have to see it," he said.

He added, "I have an old safe door as a coffee table and a moving sculpture of Elgin history is on my wall, and on the top floor of my house are some lights that belonged to the original Elgin baseball diamond."

The other loft on the tour belongs to Fred Steffen, who also believes his home is a must-see. Steffen, who previously lived in Plato Center, moved into the loft in 2000.

"There's nothing like it in town," he said.

But the space, which is situated at 15 Douglas Ave., was definitely a diamond in the rough when Steffen first set eyes upon it

"It was a bunch of small offices for telemarketing," he recalled. "They dropped the ceiling down to eight feet, they had the horrible shag carpeting and the back stairwell was painted avocado green."

Steffen put in new windows and tuck-pointing and replaced the roof, refinished the floors and brought the ceilings back to 15 feet.

"We replaced the curved molding around the ceiling and the arches," he said.

Even the exposed brickwork in the loft has a tale to tell. Much like the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, Elgin experienced a series of fires in the same time period. The most devastating one took place in 1877 when many wooden structures burned to the ground. Because Chicago was rebuilding at the same time, bricks became scarce and Elgin builders used blended bricks from various local quarries.

As a result, the walls of the Steffen loft boast a colorful assortment of bricks that testify to another era of revitalization.

"It's a significant building in downtown Elgin and I thought it ought to be preserved," he said.

All three of the remaining tour destinations are relatively new to downtown Elgin and represent available properties in the downtown district. NENA has taken on the task of dressing these locations in Christmas finery.

"The idea that we are going for is old meets new," Phillips said. "People can bring their antiques and their history with them and create a future in the present in this great building with a view of the river."

The townhouse at 159 Festival Court was the first "urban infill" project in Elgin. "Urban infill" is a process that focuses on the reuse and repositioning of obsolete and underused buildings and sites with an eye toward close-knit communities that encourage walking, thereby save energy.

It was awarded the Urban Land Institute of Chicago's Community Vision Award in 2006.

No matter how innovative the site, home tourists will want to get a look inside of the four-story traditional-style building. The main level of the home is where the real Christmas tree is displayed, and the fourth floor has a lovely view of river and the holiday decorations at Festival Park, directly across the street.

The last two stops are at 50 S. Grove Ave., where George Peck's store, which became Joseph Spiess Company, once stood. Unit 603 at Fountain Square on the River tips its hat to the previous era with a collection of antiques from the turn of the 20th century, while the 608 unit greets visitors with a more modern twist, including a pencil-style tree to keep the view of the Fox River and downtown unobstructed.

The tree, decorated with white lights, is highlighted with gold and silver ornaments with a splash of red.

Aside from the unique offerings on the tour, Phillips adds another bonus.

"Our tickets are really affordable this year," Phillips said. "With the economy the way it is, we thought of the people. They are trying to decided how to spend their holiday dollars and our tickets are very affordable at $10."