Residents call on Joliet council to save 19th-century house

Several people this week pleaded with the Joliet City Council to save a 19th-century limestone house about to be torn down to make room for a Thorntons gas station.

The Jackson Street house has faced the possibility of demolition for nearly a year. Neighborhood leaders in October urged the council to approve the gas station regardless of the fate of the house before an 8-0 vote in support of the project.

At the time, there was a possibility the house could be relocated.

But a demolition permit is now pending, and the City Council is being urged to step in.

“This is the history of Joliet being removed home by home,” Joliet resident Audrey Secko told the council. “These are irreplaceable homes.”

The two-story house at 411 E. Jackson St. was built in 1851 for George Casseday, a wealthy land speculator who had moved with his family to Joliet. Many people believe the house to be a onetime stagecoach stop, although a recent historical assessment of the building determined that was not true.

Still, advocates for preserving the house, including council member Jan Quillman, said its demolition would be one more example of the city’s disregard for its architectural history.

“We’re becoming this modern little city with no history. That’s the problem,” Quillman said.

Mary Beth Gannon, a member of the Joliet Historic Preservation Commission, led this week’s push to save the house, pointing to the plan to move the house to a nearby city-owned lot.

“It’s too important not to be moved, and now it’s getting ready to be demolished,” Gannon said.

Attorney Michael Hansen, representing Thorntons, said it’s too late.

Hansen said a relocation of the house is subject to state oversight because the house is located along two state highway routes, Route 6 on Jackson Street and Route 171 on Collins Street. The Illinois Historical Preservation Agency has determined the house should not be moved, he said.

“The IHPA has made its decision. It’s a done deal,” Hansen said.

The house has a ready buyer, David Castleberry, who said he had been working with Thorntons and the city.

A city official, however, said the house could not be moved without funding from Thorntons.

Still, Castleberry said it could be done.

“I did everything I should do,” he said, “and there’s really no reason for that house to be town down.”