The Beith House "is one of the very few unaltered examples of riverstone houses of the 1840s and 1850s remaining in the St. Charles area," remarked National Register Coordinator Jeffrey S. Fleming in 1979. A fire in the late 1970s, however, had turned the house into a significant eyesore for downtown St. Charles as seen in the photo. In 1979, owners of Fox Island Square on Illinois Street wanted more parking for their shops and offices and wanted to tear the dilapidated 1850 house down. Preservation Partners of the Fox Valley (then named Restorations of Kane County) came up with a plan to move the house to Mt. Saint Mary Park, about 1/2 mile south. The owners agreed as long as the house was moved by March 1, 1981. By February, we had raised about $18,500 and, with a loan for $15,000, had just enough to move the house. Plans were in place to move the house on February 16 but continuing negotiations with us, the property owners, and the city of St. Charles delayed the move. By July 1981 the property owner agreed to not demolish the home as long as it was repaired. On January 31, 1982, the owners donated the house to Preservation Partners. Since then, we have rehabilitated it, using the first floor as a museum until 2019 and the second floor as our office space.
Thank you for reading! If this story interested, inspired, or informed you, please consider subscribing to our monthly e-newsletter so more of these stories come right to you!
PHOTO: Beith House c. 1979.
SOURCES: "The Beith House - A New Project?" Restoration Advocate 1, no. 2 (August 1979): 2; "Parking Lots May Aid Beith House," St. Charles Chronicle, February 4, 1981; "Beith House Stays," St. Charles Chronicle, July 1, 1981; "Beith House," Restoration Advocate 3, no. 5 (February 1982): 1.