Sweeping changes have transformed an 1871 Victorian, one of eight vintage residences open for viewing during an upcoming house walk in Elgin.

The home was built for John Spire, listed in the city directory as a "merchant, capitalist." He died in 1882, but his widow lived there until the 1890s.

In 1896, the house was purchased by "the rather dapper and definitely fast-moving John M. Murphy, an Elgin alderman. He was one of Elgin's first car dealers," said Fran Cella of the Gifford Park Association, the sponsor of the tour.

After Murphy was appointed superintendent of streets, he came up with a design for a motorized street sweeper. He sought out the financing and manufacturing facilities of the American Tower and Tank Co., a firm making water towers, to build the sweeper.

"The company became known as the Elgin Street Sweeper Company and is still in existence today," she said. The firm calls itself "America's first, world's finest street sweeper" on its Web site.

In 1919, Murphy sold the house. It remained a single-family residence under various owners until 1978. Then, new owners chopped up the house into five apartments, and the structure deteriorated.

The building became a concern for city inspectors and it was occasionally known as a "drug house," Cella said. As the once-proud home tumbled into troubles times, legends about its deteriorated state -- roaches the size of John Murphy's cars was one such rumor -- circulated among the locals.

In 2007, Elgin officials offered financial incentives for a contractor to purchase the house -- with the formidable task of converting the building back to a single-family residence and repairing its numerous code violations.

A woman, whose grandfather had emigrated to Elgin from Sweden decades ago, made an offer to purchase the home even before the rehab had been completed. She helped finish off the house by selecting all of the interior paint colors, installing her own lighting fixtures and buying the appliances.

"The house is once again an attractive and respectable member of the neighborhood," Cella said.

Another home on the tour was built in 1887 for Alfred B. Church, the stepson of Gale Borden -- of Borden Dairy fame.

An Elgin Daily Courier article from Christmas Eve 1886 praised the house, then under construction, as "the finest new house which the year has produced."

In 1903, Thomas Loucks, the owner of a coal business, bought the house for $28,000. In 1922, the house was purchased by Emil P. Johnson, a piano manufacturer who had bought the Seybold Piano and Organ Co. The Johnsons experienced financial trouble in the Great Depression. Lawsuits and back taxes ultimately forced a sheriff's sale.

Henry Muntz purchased the property for $5,700, and in 1937 Johnson's widow moved out.

In 1939, Lawrence O'Connor bought the house. "He converted the first floor to a funeral home business, and the upper two floors into apartments for his family and his brother's," Cella said. The home has been a funeral parlor since. In 1961, the east-facing porch was replaced by a brick addition that still functions as a chapel.

From 1999 to 2003, the upper two floors sat vacant, until the current owners bought it. They found the upper floors to be in shambles.

"With no occupants, there were water leaks and other problems had gone undetected," Cella said. The current owners have installed new plumbing and new electrical wiring inside and made exterior renovations, while also trying to operate their funeral home business.

This home is the "work-in-progress" for this year's tour.

The housewalk also includes a 1910 bungalow (with its original interior details), a foursquare (built in 1883 by a Swedish immigrant carpenter for himself) and two Queen Annes which have been reconverted back to their original status as single-family homes after a long time as apartments.