Daily Herald opinion: A local learning opportunity?: Historic home could help educate the public about DuPage County’s farming past

More than two years after appearing on a list of the state’s most endangered historic places, there could be a second act for Oak Cottage in the Greene Valley Forest Preserve near Naperville.

The Forest Preserve District of DuPage County is seeking formal statements of interest from individuals or organizations with a vision for rehabilitating and reusing the 1850s farmhouse at the southeast corner of Greene and Hobson roads.

“We want to keep an open mind and try to just see what creative opportunities are here,” Forest Preserve President Daniel Hebreard told senior writer Katlyn Smith for a story published on Sunday.

The willingness of forest preserve officials to allow preservationists to come in and restore Oak Cottage is a notable change from prior district policy, which allowed the structure to sit unused for decades.

Our hope is that it could pave the way for Oak Cottage — and a neighboring barn — to someday become an educational resource similar to Kline Creek Farm, a forest preserve district-owned living history museum in West Chicago that depicts what local farm life was like in the 1890s.

Oak Cottage and the Greene Barn were built on land that William Briggs Greene acquired in 1843. Greene started construction of the farmhouse in 1850. Work on the 14,000-square-foot barn happened sometime later.

Around 1970, the forest preserve district acquired the structures as part of its decades-long effort to assemble land for what eventually became Greene Valley.

According to the forest preserve district, William Bertram Greene — the grandson of William Briggs Greene — encouraged the preservation of Oak Cottage and the Greene Barn. The initial belief was that the structures would eventually serve cultural, educational, historical and recreational purposes. So far, though, they have only been an aesthetic feature on the landscape.

Members of the Greene family were able to live in the farmhouse until the early 1980s. But it has remained vacant ever since. And time has taken its toll.

While the exterior of the white clapboard house has been maintained by the forest preserve district, the interior has remained largely undisturbed. It now needs substantial work. Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, a firm hired by the district, did an analysis of Oak Cottage. Its report estimated that repairing and converting the house for another use would cost at least $279,000. The district says utility connections could add $200,000 to $500,000 to the price tag.

That cost could prove to be prohibitive. Still, we hope that someone steps up to propose a viable use for Oak Cottage.

Restoring the farmhouse — along with opening the Greene Barn to the public — could help educate future generations about DuPage County’s farming past. We applaud forest preserve officials for at least being open to one of those ideas and wanting to partner with a group to breathe new life into Oak Cottage.