SWAN-Elgin

ELGIN – The house at 155 S. Gifford St. is the former home of Increase Bosworth, one of the city’s early residents.

“It was lovely mansion,” said Bill Briska, Elgin historian and president of the city’s heritage commission. “But then it was turned into a slum, a boarding house with five units.”

The neighborhood eventually was declared a historic district, and the Bosworth house was deconverted back into a single-family home, he said.

Many Elgin residents and city officials agree that historic district status for neighborhoods acts as a catalyst for stressed areas because it helps stabilize communities and property values.

However, some residents fear the “red tape,” extra rules and costs associated with the status.

There are 1,700 Elgin properties in four historic districts, two of which are on the national register, according to Jennifer Fritz-Williams, the city’s preservation specialist.

She said the city is encouraging more neighborhoods to apply for historic district status. The reason: “It’s one of the most effective tools in preserving walkable communities close to many amenities, and it maintains and repairs existing homes,” Fritz-Williams said.

That is in addition to the fact it prevents old homes from losing their character.

“You can’t take an older house (from) the 1920s and 1930s and put aluminum siding on it or turn porches into rooms,” said Briska, who has owned a home built in 1886 in the Elgin Historic District for the past 29 years. “Just like you can’t take a Model A Ford and turn it into a minivan, those renovations don’t make it into a modern-day house. It destroys the distinctive character of the house.”

Dan Miller, an Elgin resident and proponent of historic district status, agreed.

“We need to protect it so that guys like the owner on Hendee (Street) do not wipe out part of our heritage,” he said, referring to a home where the owner tore down the original porch and replaced it with an inexpensive wood porch.

“If the neighborhood had the protection of a preservation ordinance, he would have been told that he cannot destroy his significant porch, and he would have been given advice on how to repair it.”

Grants for homes

Once a neighborhood gains historic district status, residents there can apply for grants through the city to restore their homes.

An example is a Gifford Park neighborhood family that recently installed a fancy porch like the one that had been lost to modernization in the 1950s. It cost $30,000, with the city contributing $17,225 through the 50/50 Historic Architectural Grant Program.

Under the program, pays half the cost for a historic exterior renovation, up to $20,000. This year, the city received 24 applications, Fritz-Williams said. Typically, it gives out 12 to 13 grants per year. However, because of a tight budget this year, the city was only able to give out three grants.

Not everyone is a fan of historic districts. Near-west-side neighborhood leader Chuck Keysor said opponents like him “are opposed to the added regulation, red tape and basic notion that their liberties are being curtailed” when it comes to historic district status.

“I hate to see old houses be trashed by remodelers who have no sense of historic values or aesthetic sensitivities,” Keysor said. “They are like plagues of locusts, spreading their destruction wherever they go, often doing their damage in the name of energy savings and lower maintenance.”

However, forming a historic district is “like guerrilla warfare, where every vote must be won through hard-fought campaigning, and enemies will be made in such a process,” he said. “I love old houses, but I would rather not work to directly create enemies.”

On top of that, he said, many like himself can’t restore their homes back to their original state due to preservation guidelines.

Most importantly, Keysor said, “No one would want to invest in restoring an old house in our neighborhood even if we had a historic district.”

The reason, he said, is “the perception of crime and huge amounts of subsidized housing in the northwest neighborhood” have kept people from buying homes for restoration.

Push for stability

But proponents say that’s exactly why neighborhoods need historic district status.

“There are good properties and bad properties — renaissance and ruin lie side by side on these blocks,” said the heritage commission’s Briska. “Without historic district status, the risk is the ruin will outrun the renaissance.”

Historic district status “seems to stabilize property values and maintain and increase the values of homes relative to comparable properties not in districts,” Briska said.

Plus, the “cost to maintain and repair a home is usually less than the cost of replacing it,” he said.

Briska said residents shouldn’t worry about added regulations, either.

“You shouldn’t be afraid of historic district status,” Briska said. “If you don’t want to do anything to your property, you don’t have to. It just helps you if you want to restore that property.”

The bottom line, he said, is that historic status districts are going to attract residents with higher incomes, which correlates with reinvestment.

“You’re not going to have as many people just moving in and moving out,” Briska said, pointing to stable communities in places such as Glen Ellyn and St. Charles. “It’s a cycle we’d like to get going in Elgin because if everyone has pride in their own house, they’ll have pride in their neighbor’s house, and you’ll have a sense of community.”

To see if a home is in a historic district or to apply for historic district status, people can visit the city’s Web site at www.cityofelgin.org, click on “Living in Elgin” and then click on historic preservation.

© Copyright 2009 Digital Chicago, Inc.