The extreme makeover is one of today’s hot trends on television.
That may work for people, but not always for houses.
Some of the majestic homes from the Victorian era are being subjected to the ultimate makeover: They’re being crushed under the wrecker’s ball.
Often called “painted ladies” because many have multicolored exteriors, these houses from yesteryear often have fanciful facades with lacy gingerbread, soaring turrets and wraparound porches.
Despite their beauty, they are not always treated with respect.
One prime local casualty was the William H. Knight house, a Queen Anne-style Victorian in Hinsdale that was demolished in 2002 to make way for construction of a 20-room, 9,000-square-foot mansion on a prominent corner in the western suburb.
Built in 1894 by William H. Knight, whose wife was the daughter of Hinsdale’s founder, it had been placed on the list of threatened properties by the Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois because of its historical importance. That didn’t save it.
“Any building that is 100 years old and not beautifully restored might be in jeopardy,” said David Bahlman, president of the preservation council.
While San Francisco is the city most famed for its Victorian treasures, the Chicago area also is rich in surviving residences from that era. Some are showing their age and may be candidates for demolition, but many others are being restored inside and out.
“Victorians are the bread and butter of historical preservation around the country,” Bahlman said.
“There’s nothing like living in a Victorian. It has so much charm and history, and it feels homey and cozy, even though it’s large,” said Laura Stroud. She and her husband, Steve, bought a 3,600-square-foot Victorian in Elgin that was built in 1887.
After restoring the wraparound porch and repainting, they entered it in the 2003 “Chicago’s Finest Painted Ladies” competition and won the grand prize in the professionally painted category. The annual contest, sponsored by the Chicago Paint & Coatings Association, honors winners in the city and suburbs.
The restoration “was worth it,” said Steve Stroud, a retired high school teacher. “These are works of art.”
He warned, though, that fixing up a vintage house “can be a money pit if you pay too much for the house or too much restoration is needed.”
“The cost of our house and all the rehab was less than a new house of the same size,” Stroud said. “In Elgin, you might buy a Victorian for $150,000 and then spend $40,000 to $50,000 on renovation.”
Of course, home prices in other suburbs could be considerably higher.Most Victorian owners retain the historic look outside, but radically alter the interiors.
“Unfortunately, some Victorians have fallen into disrepair because of their age,” Stroud said. “Some people tear off the gingerbread from Victorians, but then they lose their artistic appeal.
“They were built to last. The wood used was old-growth pine from Wisconsin. One tree could build an entire house,” he continued. “If maintained, Victorians will last longer than houses built yesterday.”
Stroud noted that Victorians were at first painted with several colors, but the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago had the theme, “The White City.”
“That set a trend to paint houses white, and painted ladies went into a slump,” Stroud said.
The painting company that did the prize-winning Stroud house owes a debt to San Francisco.
“We took a trip to San Francisco for inspiration,” said Holly Wiedmeyer. She and her husband, John, own Quality Painting & Decorating in Elgin, which specializes in painting Victorian homes.
“We went to San Francisco looking for new ideas, and it was a real eye-opener. They paint Victorian houses there with such abandon; they are so innovative. We came back with new insights,” she said.
Much like San Francisco, Elgin is committed to preserving its architectural heritage. It has two programs that promote historic renovation.
“The city provides grants of 50 percent or 75 percent of the cost of the project up to a maximum of $10,000,” said Sarosh Saher, the Elgin’s urban design and preservation specialist.
“The purpose of the grants is neighborhood revitalization,” he added.
Selection for a grant depends on the historic significance of the property. Elgin also looks favorably on such projects as removing aluminum siding, restoring architectural ornamentation, restoring a porch that has been modified and painting.
“Elgin is unique because it has a very large number of houses built during the Victorian era,” Saher said. “That was at a time when wealth came to the city from two major businesses — watch-making and the dairy industry.”
Elgin has three historic districts with a total of 1,540 houses.
“As a blue-collar town, we have not had a teardown problem, like Hinsdale. So much of our housing stock is still intact,” Saher said.
By contrast, teardown fever continues in Chicago.
“It’s sad. Our house is almost the only Victorian left on the block,” said Dayle Duchossois, who lives in a former farmhouse that was built after the Civil War and survived the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.
She and her husband, Ed Fortino, bought the property in Lincoln Park in 1981 and have restored it. “It took a lot of time and research. We even reproduced the original wallpaper from that time,” she said.
She said the house, built on a larger-than-average city lot on the North Side, “was a hippie boarding house when we bought it. Now it has the charm of Chicago’s history and a mellow feeling.”
The house won an award in the Chicago’s Finest Painted Ladies competition in 2000.
She attributed the teardown trend to the desire of young buyers for modern houses with all the amenities, including large closets and baths — features largely unknown to people of the Victorian era. And, Duchossois has a reminder of what life was like then. She and her husand discovered an old chamber pot when digging in their yard.
“There always will be a market for vintage, but it’s a different animal. Buyers have to be committed as far as maintenance and upkeep,” said Rick Druker, vice president and managing broker of Baird & Warner’s Gold Coast office.
Druker said recent sales of homes more than 100 years old in the Gold Coast and Lincoln Park include an 1896 home for $2.7 million and an 1879 row house for $500,000.
Andrew Fisher, preservation easement coordinator for the Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois, stressed that there is one way “to save Victorians forever.”
He explained that owners can donate the facade of their home through a preservation easement. In return, they get a charitable tax deduction of 15 percent of fair market value of the house. This one-time federal tax return deduction can be carried over for six years.
“A preservation easement means the outside never can be changed except by obtaining permission of the preservation council,” he said. “To be eligible, a property must be 50 years old or older and on the National Register of Historic Places or in a historic district.”
Fisher estimates that 6,000 houses in the Chicago area — mostly Victorians — are eligible for the income tax deduction.
“This gives owners a reason to save their historic home rather than sell it for a teardown,” Fisher said. “But it’s hard to beat developers in places where the land is more valuable than the house on it.”
He noted that the preservation easement option was created by the government in order to preserve America’s architectural heritage.
Another way to benefit from an old house is to fix it up and apply to the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency for an eight-year tax freeze. Owners must spend 25 percent of the value of the house in rehabilitation of a property in a local historic district or on the National Register.
Even with these incentives, teardowns continue here. San Francisco, though, seems more committed to saving its housing stock of that era, perhaps because the city is so associated with Victorian architecture.
“Today, you have to have a good reason or good connections to tear down a Victorian in San Francisco,” said Michael Freethy, a real estate agent with Prudential California Realty in San Francisco.
In the past, though, many Victorians were lost.
They were hard hit by the massive earthquake of 1906 in some sections of city. The next wave of demolitions struck during the 1950s and 1960s, when “block after block were bulldozed for urban renewal,” Freethy said.
“Then, in the late ’70s and early ’80s, people started to realize the value of Victorians, that they are treasures and represent a piece of history,” Freethy said.
Prices have soared, too. “A Victorian that was $30,000 25 years ago now is going for $1.3 million. Even literal teardowns with ceilings falling in are selling for more than $600,000,” Freethy said.
Today, one of the classic picture postcard views of San Francisco is the row of Victorians framed against the city’s skyline at Alamo Square.
“Preservation is peeling back time,” said Charles Chase, executive director of San Francisco Architectural Heritage, located in a Victorian mansion that was built in 1886.
Chase said the many Victorians built in the 1860s through the 1890s reflect boom times in San Francisco. “This was the time of the Industrial Revolution, so many components of the houses were manufactured and could be purchased from a catalog.”
Chase noted that paint was used to point out the decoration of the houses. “But the 19th Century palette of colors was more drab than those of today, which are more brilliant,” he said.
Sometimes a Victorian can be too popular, and not because of its historic value.
“The owners sold the house on Steiner Street [in San Francisco] that was used in the movie `Mrs. Doubtfire,'” Freethy said. “They got tired of the tour buses stopping in front and curious sightseers climbing up the lawn and peering into their windows.”
