[May 23, 2020]      

Pictures by Curtis Fox

BUILDINGS

An old brick chicken house? Who ever heard of such a thing? They don’t make them like that anymore. Who knows how old it is.

 

A fascinating old brick barn. This one was not built in a day by a bunch of neighbors at an old fashioned barn-raising. This took many brick masons many days to build. No telling how old it is.

 

This old block barn with the lightning rods on top was built in 1920. That makes it a centennial barn. It looks as if it was built yesterday, in perfect condition.

1920

 

This one of a kind structure looks like something from the future.

 

A block and wire corn crib, one of a kind. According to the owner, she saw one other like it that had been converted into an apartment.

 

On our country walking adventure, we came across this early 20th Century Sears Roebuck Catalog house. Nancy and Frank have lived here for three years. Yes, in the early days of the 20th century, a person could buy a complete house from the Sears catalog, including a custom interior.
The entire house was delivered to the lot. Each piece of timber was numbered so that the builder could tell how they all fit together. There were different layouts and sizes available.
This one resembles Model 147 arts and crafts bungalow offered between 1908 and 1920. Of course, Sears had more than 300 models in their catalog between 1908 and 1942, then the houses were no longer offered. Some have been remodeled over the years, so it may be difficult to tell the model without reviewing the original paperwork.

 

This historic structure was part of the early 20th Century interurban electric railroad system that ran throughout central Illinois. This building was an electricity generating station. A group of interurban enthusiasts hope to raise enough money to restore it.