Renovations pending: Kendall Forest Preserve District opens Pickerill home to contractors

As a much-beloved athletics director and coach at Oswego High School, Ken Pickerill left a lasting legacy with generations of students.

Coaching football and wrestling, Pickerill led his teams to multiple state championships and was admired for the work ethic he instilled in his players.

Pickerill, who died in 2019 at the age of 91, lived in a modern, architecturally stunning house secluded in a heavily wooded area on Minkler Road about halfway between Yorkville and Oswego.

The late coach has left another legacy to the community.

Pickerill willed the 1970s home and the surrounding 26-acre property to the Kendall County Forest Preserve District, which is making plans to renovate the house for use by the public.

Together with adjacent property purchased from the Pigott family, the Pickerill-Pigott Forest Preserve covers about 99 acres and is considered one of the forest preserve district’s premier properties.

The preserve with its hiking trails and other amenities was opened to the public in 2020.

Now, the district is preparing to make use of an $828,000 grant from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources along with $250,000 in district funds to renovate the house.

The improvement project is designed to make the house publicly accessible and transform it into a multi-use facility for public events, private parties, school programs and nature studies.

There is plenty of work needed both inside and outside the house to make it suitable as a public venue, forest preserve district Director Dave Guritz said.

Outside, that includes a new roof and siding, a new outdoor patio with fireplace, canopy and solar panels to help power the house, which is of necessity all-electric in its rural location.

Inside the front door visitors find themselves in a great hall dominated by a mammoth stone fireplace.

Above, a catwalk runs through the center of the open, vaulted ceiling that connects the two second-floor bedroom wings of the house, while a grand staircase leads from the hall to the upper floor.

The house features large windows that bring daylight and the surrounding scenes of nature directly into the home.

Along with architect Chris Hansen of Aurora-based Kluber Architects and members of the forest preserve commission and the Kendall County Forest Preserve Foundation, Guritz recently hosted a tour of the property for contractors interested in bidding on the work.

Hansen explained the scope of the project, which includes work to bring the house into compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act.

The architect outlined the technical specifications, including replacement of the exterior cedar siding with a fiber-based cement material providing a similar look with far less maintenance.

There is to be replacement of plumbing, septic and mechanical systems, as well as lighting.

No work is to be performed on the second floor, which will remain closed to the public.

The renovation project is expected to take place this year.

The possibilities for educational programming at the Pickerill home is an exciting thought for forest preserve district Grounds and Natural Resources Division Supervisor Antoinette White.

“It’s a beautiful estate. It blows my mind,” White said, marveling at the features Pickerill had put into the home.

“Look at all the details he put into this place,” White said.

White is amused by some of the home’s treatments, which quickly recall the 1970s.

“There’s some interesting wallpaper and other retro aspects,” White said, grinning, pointing to a room covered in lime green shag carpeting.

Hansen said all carpeting in the house will be removed and replaced with hard surfaces.

Forest Preserve Commission member Matt Kellogg said the district is seeking financial and in-kind donations to help with the renovation project.