The Elgin National Watch Historic District will take center stage this weekend during the Gifford Park Association’s 42nd annual Historic Elgin House Tour.
Four homes on Arlington Street, one on South Liberty Street and three public buildings — Calvary Baptist Church, the Elgin Fire Barn No. 5 Museum and the School District U-46 Observatory — will be featured during the event being held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
“This year we purposely wanted to focus on the Elgin National Watch Historical District,” said Paul Bednar, who co-chairs the association’s steering committee with Trish LaFleur. “They are a neighborhood that we haven’t been to in 26 years.”
Bednar, part of the house tour for 35 years, said the committee starts meeting in January to plan the event and tries to pick a new neighborhood each year from among the city’s five historic districts.
The Elgin National Watch district was created in 1997 and centers on the area where the Elgin Watch Co. factory once stood on National Street.
“We really want to encourage things to happen down in the neighborhood,” Bednar said. “They used to have an active neighborhood group many years ago. It sort of disbanded. There are a couple of leaders down there that have tried to get the neighborhood back and get active and improve things.”
The Gifford Park Association wants to “encourage everybody to see some of the cool and impressive homes in this neighborhood,” he said. “Hopefully, we’ll draw some attention to the value of a historic district and what that designation can do for the homeowners.”
One aspect that makes the district unique is the variety of homes, Bednar said. There are some large residences sitting next to modest-sized homes — the former once belonging to more affluent residents and the latter typically workers’ cottages, he said.
Two American Foursquare-style houses on the tour are owned by different members of the same family — Kathy and Joel Stuerer and their daughter and son-in-law, Carly and Theo Gorick.
“Just before the turn of the century, you might have seen Victorian and Queen Anne as the prominent styles. Then it got a little simpler with American Foursquare,” Bednar said.
The style has a square or rectangular design sometimes called a “square box,” according to information provided by Gifford Park Association.
The Stuerers puchased their house at 476 Arlington St. in 1990 and raised their two daughters, Carly and Abby, there, tour information says. They have done extensive work on the home, including restoring all of the original windows and woodwork.
Carly and her husband bought the house across the street in 2017, and have also done restoration work, including stripping paint and refinishing several parts of the residence, tour information said.
The other homes featured are bungalow, Italianate and Colonial Revival styles.
Rebecca Hunter, who has researched and compiled studies on Elgin architecture, will do walking tours in which she’ll explain the different styles found in the district.
The tour typically draws more than 1,500 people and is one of the most popular events of its kind in the area, Bednar said.
“People from out of town just seem impressed when they come and see what Elgin has to offer. I think sometimes they are surprised,” he said.
One house on the tour will have docents who speak Spanish. “We felt it was important to do,” Bednar said. “As we do it again here, it will build up more interest to draw more people.”
Tour tickets cost $20 and can be purchased online at historicelginhousetour.com or on the day of the tour. They can be used over both days.
Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
