St. Charles house up for National Register of Historic Places

What started as an anniversary present for his bride of 40 years could end with Dean and Claire Bemis' house in St. Charles on the National Register of Historic Places.

Thanks to the historical research Dean Bemis performed on the family's 157-year-old Greek Revival-style home at 304 N. Second St., the Illinois Historic Sites Advisory Council last week unanimously approved the structure for a listing on the national registry.

Now the couple are waiting for the final step to be completed in Washington, D.C.

“We could go pick out the plaque if we were feeling lucky,” Claire Bemis said. “But I think we're going to wait until it's official.”

The home is dubbed “The Hubbard House” after its builder, Joel Hubbard. It was constructed in 1854 and sold to another family three years later. Its current owners rented the house for 10 years before buying it 30 years ago.

Claire Bemis said she was attracted to it at first because she wanted a house to go with all the antique furniture she had inherited. She said she fell in love with the structure immediately.

“When I first saw it, I didn't even notice there wasn't a stove or a refrigerator,” she said. “I also thought there were only two bedrooms, but there were three.”

When the couple first moved in, the house was actually divided in two, so the Bemises lived in one half of the house and another family lived in the other. The Bemises bought the house 10 years later after the other family moved out.

“It's a very adaptable house,” Claire Bemis said. “My sons' old playroom downstairs is now a guest room.”

Architect Michael Dixon helped in the Bemises' quest to get the home approved by the historic sites advisory council, and Dean Bemis spent six months researching the history of the house, the man who built it and the people who lived there over the years, his wife said.

The couple even took trips to Bureau County, Ill., to meet with genealogists to learn more about the original builder.

“(Dean) worked very hard for six months and just filled up a binder with everything he could find on the history of the house,” she said. “It was a wonderful gift.”