Bill Briska and his wife, Fran Cella, have owned a home built in 1886 in the Elgin Historic District for the past 29 years. The home is completely restored. An architectural and historical cache of vintage housing in far northwest suburban Elgin has earned a spot in This Old House magazine's 2009 Best Old-House Neighborhoods list.
The magazine's July/August issue features 51 great places (one in every state and Canada) to purchase an old house. Included are "areas that might not be on your radar, but deserve to be," the magazine says. The issue showcases six of the chosen cities, with the additional winners featured on the magazine's Web site: www.thisoldhouse.com.
Rich Hein / Sun-Times
Elgin took a top laurel for "Best Place for Fixer Uppers" for its diverse architecture, which ranges from Queen Anne and Tudor to Gothic Revival. The magazine pointed out that "dazzling TLC-needing Queen Annes start at $100,000." The city's location, 40 miles from the Loop, was also an award-winning criteria as well as the grant program for old houses offered by the City of Elgin.
"Elgin has the attributes we were looking for," said Deborah Snoonian, senior editor of This Old House. "It has a significant number of houses that have many of their original period details. Another factor is that the area has many homes that are preserved and there is a strong community there working for preservation.
"One thing that played into our choice is that many of these old houses are not out of reach in terms of affordability. Plus, Elgin is only an hour ride to a major metropolitan area, has good job opportunities, it's walkable and residents have a strong sense of wanting to preserve the neighborhood and not tear down buildings to make way for strip malls," Snoonian said.
Bill Briska and his wife, Fran Cella, have owned a home built in 1886 for the past 29 years in Elgin. Briska knows the city's architecture well and is actively involved in its preservation. He's treasurer of the Elgin Area Historical Society and chairman of the City of Elgin Heritage Commission, which oversees architectural design in the historic districts. Briska also is the author of two books on local history.
Briska says Elgin has four historic districts: The Elgin Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places; the Spring Douglas Historic District (the National Register of Historic Places); the Elgin National Watch Company Historic District, and the D.C. Cook/ Lovell Historic District (2007).
"These districts have about 2,000 structures within them in total," Briska said. "I think we won the magazine's award because there are so many good houses available here and they're a good deal."
Another Elgin plus is the city's grant programs that help make home ownership a good deal, Briska said. "The City of Elgin is active in promoting preservation with several grant programs to restore older homes. These include de-conversion grants to remove apartments from homes in an effort to return them to single-family dwellings.
"There are also exterior facade restoration grants to assist in the cost of removing substitute siding and other non-original features and restoring the original appearance," Briska said. "Smaller grants are available that cover chain-link fence removal and paint purchase programs." To date, nearly 400 projects have been funded by city grants.
"Elgin also has an impressive array of volunteer efforts aimed at neighborhood preservation and restoration," Briska said. "We have very strong neighborhood organizations and I think all these factors helped convince This Old House to choose Elgin."
Briska, who has completely restored his home in the Elgin Historic District, says he's been tracking old house prices in the city for nearly 10 years.
"There is an abundant number of homes in Elgin that are restored, but there is also an abundant stock of properties waiting for a new life and a sympathetic owner. Prices are very reasonable, especially compared with closer-in suburbs. Fixer-uppers can be readily found, several of which are currently under $100,000," Briska said. "Larger homes, depending on the condition, can range from more than $100,000 to about $250,000 for a restored home.
"There are a lot of smaller houses here -- bungalows, worker cottages and two-story homes -- priced for less than $100,000. And right now there are a lot of homes on the market because the air has gone out of the housing markets. So, a lot of prices are cut."
Elgin homeowner Brenda Hennessey, whose home was featured in This Old House, agrees. Hennessey's late-19th century historic brownstone was purchased several years ago for $198,000. Brenda and her husband Evan are currently looking for a larger house.
"That's the great thing about Elgin," Hennessey said in the magazine. "You can buy a starter home, upgrade to a virtual mansion to raise your kids, then empty-nest it down to a bungalow when you retire."
"I just can't say enough great things about Elgin," Hennessey told the Sun-Times. "It's just a perfect place to live."
